Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy said on Tuesday that being a good citizen is about treating the society as one’s own.

Speaking at the 10th annual convocation of the IIT Bhubaneswar in a virtual mode, Murthy underlined that the only way to solve poverty in the country was to create more and more jobs with better income.

”I have tremendous confidence in the power of youth, values, aspirations, energy, confidence, determination, discipline and enthusiasm,” Murthy said in his address.

”But then, that requires that you people do some hard thinking, some introspection and are determined to do what the previous generations have not done,” the 75-year-old said.

He stressed on the need to create a civilised society where every citizen has equal opportunity to better one’s life, every child has food, shelter, healthcare and education, and a society that focused on performance rather than empty slogans, among others.

Murthy, who was the chief guest at the convocation, told the IIT graduates to ”be good citizens first and then be good people”.

”In India, most of us are kind, courteous and generous to our family, and perhaps to our close friends. This is being good people,” Murthy elucidated.

He said being a good citizen is about treating the society as your own, putting the interests of the society ahead of yours and your family’s interest, treating strangers with courtesy and taking care of the commons.

”Somehow, we do not care about responsibility towards people outside the family and friends’ orbit,” Murthy rued.

That’s why, one see corruption, people cleaning their homes and throwing the dirt on to public roads and that’s why you see complete lack of civic sense, according to the Infosys founder.

”Remember, that this country belongs to you!” he said.

Murthy underscored that education was extremely important in creating a stabilised society.

Education is about assuming responsibility in society. Responsibility to show fairness to the less fortunate citizens, responsibility to create a future that the posterity can be proud of, he said.

Murthy added that the only way to solve poverty in the country was to create more and more jobs with better income.

This requires entrepreneurship, he added.

”We must create jobs in the manufacturing and the services sector. We need more engineers, scientists, bureaucrats and politicians that have a mindset to encourage entrepreneurship,” Murthy said.

He highlighted that English is the ‘only window’ in the modern world for Indians to access knowledge and achieve progress in science, technology, arts, medicine and economy.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)