India has a long way to go in some sectors: Narayana Murthy

Infosys Executive Chairman N R Narayana Murthy on Friday said India still remains the country with problems relating to healthcare , education, nutrition, shelter and has a long way to go in each of these sectors before "we call ourselves an accomplished society."

"India has made significant progress in several areas in the last 65 plus years after our independence, at the same time India also remains the country with perhaps more serious problems- whether it is education, healthcare, nutrition or shelter," Murthy said while delivering a keynote address at a hackathon event.

Speaking at "Code for India", the global hackathon event at Google campus here, he said "in every one of these we still have a long long way to go before we can call ourselves an accomplished society."

"This is also a society where government plays a large role and the gap between rich and the poor is so large," he added.

Stating that therefore the contributions of participants at the hackathon in finding solution to the problems of society by the power of algorithmic, design, analysis and ability to programme will be of extraordinary use to the society, Murthy said "in some way it will be more useful to this society than most other societies."

The global hackathon is aimed at building and showcasing scalable technological solutions for not-for-profit organisations solving real-life challenges in India.

The event will set the stage for participants and volunteers to collaborate with global counterparts and develop applications (apps) for non-profits based in India.

It is a parallel India-US hackathon being held at the Google campuses in Bangalore and in Mountain View, California.

Speaking about the possibility of finding simple solutions to the problems of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) for NGOs, Murthy said, "Today I find that we in India have perhaps half a million NGOs and most of them are very small and they do not have a ERP solution that combine financial assistance, human resource assistance, assistance to handling their target ordains."

"As a result these NGOs get into somewhat uncomfortable situation either with tax authorities or other stake holders," he added.

Pointing out that biggest problem in India in handling calamities is not lack of resources but the lack of management and lack of system, Murthy said if the experts in hackathon can come out with a set of simple systems to handle one of the natural calamities and make it available like Google has done in the form of Google docs "then I would say your contribution this country and entire world will be very significant."

He said "therefore my request is please think of designing solutions that will help a large number of NGOs to make them even more effective... try and attack a meta problem rather than attacking a set of specific problems."

"Look at what are the meta problems that NGOs need to solve and if you can use the power of your algorithmic thinking and problem solving to find solutions to these meta problems I do believe that you will be indeed making the life of millions of people perhaps in some cases billions of people all over the world," he added.

Noting that he has no doubts about the capability of both the US and Indian professionals in their ability to add value to the society through the power of algorithmic, Murthy said: "I hope that you will utilise the extraordinary ability in making the life of the poorest of poor much better because at the end of the day there is no way that any one of us can feel successful if we are in the midst of people who considers themselves not so successful."