Jobs 2018: Infosys cofounder Narayana Murthy wants India Inc to do this

Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy Tuesday said enterprises should focus on training youth on new-age technologies like machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT) and automation, which if used "intelligently" and in an "assistive manner", can facilitate growth for businesses.

"The biggest challenge we have is to train our youth in being prepared for IoT, machine learning, deep learning, automation etc...Youngsters will have to be trained if we want to create a larger and larger number of jobs," Murthy told PTI.

Citing the example of Infosys, he said the company's Mysore training centre has a capacity to train 14,000 people a day. "...Companies like Infosys will continue to do their job. The question is we want every company to focus on providing such a training. We want our universities to bring in innovation in education, we want focus on problem solving, independent thinking," he said adding that the Indian IT sector, overall, has been successful in creating lots of jobs.

Asked if automation would take away jobs, Murthy answered in the negative. "When banks introduced computers in the UK in early 70s, late 60s, there was a huge opposition that it would lead of loss of jobs. But you see what happened, banks expanded, more and more people gained jobs because of computerisation," he explained.

Murthy further stated: "Therefore, if we use automation intelligently, if we use automation in an assistive manner, I do believe that companies will be able to expand their businesses and bring in more and more people in areas where there is human touch, rather than doing activities which can be done by machines." 

Speaking at the Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking here, Murthy said technological advances have made life more prosperous, productive and comfortable for most people in the world. 

"Technology has improved transparency, conquered distance and class barriers and has the potential to create a fair society and enhance the accountability of the rich, the powerful and the elite to the poor and disenfranchised in every society," he said.

He added that this brings "hope, confidence, enthusiasm and dignity" in the mind of every citizen, which is important if the society wants to make sustained progress.

Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said ordinary Indians are getting empowered by smartphones. 

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"The average mobile data user per month have grown by more than 1,680 per cent between June 2014 and June 2014. The population of this huge proportion will generate a lot of data...While we are willing to permit use of data, we are willing to join the global race as far as data analysis is concerned, we are equally concerned about the consent of citizens and data sovereignty should be maintained," he said.