Infosys founder N. R. Narayana Murthy is said to have given his nod to mentor the information technology panel formed by the West Bengal Government to prepare a road map for attracting more investment in the IT sector.
“The State government had written to Mr. Murthy on July 14 requesting him to be the chief mentor of the State IT panel and he sent his consent letter accepting the proposal on July 20,” State Commerce, Industries and IT Minister Partha Chatterjee told reporters at the Secretariat, adding that Mr. Murthy also expressed his thanks to the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, for inviting him.
According to Mr. Chatterjee, Mr. Murthy would take part in meetings through video and tele-conferences in case he is unable to attend in person. “He has said that since he is on the boards of several companies within India and outside, it may be difficult for him to attend all the meetings, but he would like to participate in them through teleconference”.
The State has formed two IT panels — one for hardware and another for software — to draw a road map for the development of the industries and attract more investment.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Information, Infrastructure & Innovations, Sam Pitroda, had already consented to chair both the panels.
The two panels will consist of industry players like S. Radhakrishnan, Managing Director of Descon, Kalyan Kar, MD, Acclaris (India), and Joydeep Dutta Gupta, Executive Director of Deloitte. State IT Secretary Basudeb Banerjee said that Mr. Murthy's role would be to advise on policies necessary to make the State an attractive IT destination with IT penetration across all sectors.
Mr. Murthy is the third high profile name to figure in Ms. Banerjee's list of advisers, the two previous ones being Mr. Pitroda and Professor Amartya Sen.
