Narayana Murthy's kids may stay out of Infosys

BANGALORE: In recent weeks and months, there has been a spate of announcements of Junior Premjis, Mittals, Mallyas, Biyanis, Nadars and Venus assuming larger roles or joining the firms owned or managed by their families, either in the management or at the board level. Some like Sidhartha Mallya have become the most visible public face of their business empires.

However, at India's second-largest IT services company, Infosys Technologies, there's no rush or interest in inducting the children of the founders into the company.

N R Narayana Murthy, chairman & chief mentor of the company, said he doesn't see the second generation of Murthys, Nilekanis or Shibulals joining the company in the foreseeable future. "At this point in time, I don't see it," he said.

Murthy's son Rohan is set to finish his PhD in Computer Science from Harvard University next year. Asked about his plans, Murthy said, "It's not clear what he will do. He has multiple options. He can enter academia in the US. He can join a large corporation in R&D group or he can start something on his own. All these options are being looked at by him. I don't think he's decided."

In opting to not join Infosys, Rohan will take a path different from that pursued by his fiancee, Lakshmi Venu, the daughter of TVS Motor chief Venu Srinivasan and TAFE MD Mallika Srinivasan. Lakshmi's appointment to the board of TVS Motor's holding company, Sundaram Clayton, was okayed by the shareholders last Wednesday in Chennai.