Azim Premji turned down my job application: Narayana Murthy on the Infosys journey

Infosys would have been a different story if not for a hiring mistake by Wipro founder Azim Premji, Narayana Murthy told CNBC-TV 18 in a recent interview.

Wipro, Murthy revealed, turned down his job application which led to the birth of Infosys, one of Wipro's top rivals in the IT industry. Premji later told him (Murthy) that not hiring him was the "one of the biggest mistakes he had made."

Murthy told CNBC-TV18 had he been hired by Wipro, things would have turned out differently. As of January 12, Infosys is valued at ₹6.65 lakh crore and Wipro stands at ₹2.43 lakh crore.

Murthy's first job was that of a research associate at IIM Ahmedabad, where he worked as the chief systems programmer. He was involved in building the BASIC interpreter, a computer, for Electronics Corporation of India. Before Infosys happened, Murthy founded Softronics but it failed. He then joined Pune's Patni Computer Systems.

Also read: 'I was wrongly idealistic': Narayana Murthy says he was wrong in not allowing his wife Sudha Murty to join Infosys

Narayana Murthy, who had faced flak for his 70-hour work week advice, told India Today in an interview that there was "enormous responsibility to work very hard to bring a chance for the betterment of the lives of poor in India. Therefore, I don't regret saying that 70-hour work culture should be the norm".