Deepika Padukone up, IITs down: Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy

In an age when startups are the new sexy, it goes a long way if the founder looks like a billion dollars and the idea he is pitching is also valued the same.

The insight that it helps for an entrepreneur to not only have a revolutionary idea but also be fashionable for the younger generation to relate to him, was shared by Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy.

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Murthy was at Mumbai’s St. Xavier’s College on Monday, when he said, "There are so many smart people around. If you have to be a role model for such people, you can’t be like me. You have to have an idea which brings enthusiasm and you have to conduct yourself in a way that they say that I too want to be like him or her." Murthy also exhorted that while being glamorous or fashionable, it is also important "to be legal and ethical and do some good for the country and society".

Murthy holds fellow-Bangalorean, actress Deepika Padukone, as an example of an achiever in a glamorous field. "I am very, very proud of Deepika," he said, "She is in a glamorous world and she has brought so much joy to literally a billion Indians."

Murthy however gave the thumbs down to mega-brand IIT for losing value and blamed coaching classes for their declining prestige. "The IITs have become less exciting for our young today because of coaching classes. Today, if you enroll a child for one or two years of coaching classes, that child goes through ten types of questions and if one of them gets asked, you would not get the best talent (because the student has been prepped to answer it)."