Infosys, when it started, was a south Indian company. In the south, it was located in Karnataka. Now, in its Bangalore office more than 50 per cent of their software engineers come from northern and western India. A Gujarati, after he graduates with a degree from Rajkot, say, applies for a job to Infosys. Infosys gives him the job. He leaves his home in Rajkot, takes a train to Bangalore and joins Infosys.

In 1947, between Rajkot and Infosys lay a vast terrain broken up into about 150 political units. There were different princely states: Hyderabad was holding out against India; it was in the middle of the country and it wanted to join Pakistan.

There were no railways linking the entire country; there were no institutions, no constitution, no single currency. We take it for granted that there is a single India. But the effort to create and sustain a unified India was taken by generations of our institution builders: Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Ambedkar -- all of them were remarkable people!

Image: Narayana Murthy, chairman and chief mentor, Infosys Technologies, speaks at the Jacob Javits Centre, New York. Photograph: Paresh Gandhi

Also read: 'Jawaharlal, do you want Kashmir, or do you want to give it away?'

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