Infosys Executive Chairman N R Narayana Murthy has pitched for a small airport near Electronics City, the biggest hub of Bangalore’s IT industry that houses the main Infosys campus, as he called for improving the infrastructure facilities in Karnataka.

“We are not asking for anything extraordinary. We are asking for reasonably good roads, electricity, water, clean air and some English schools. We need reasonable connectivity to the airport. Ideally, we would like a small airport near Electronics City,” Murthy said at a Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce event here last night.

While putting forward industries wish list to the State Government he also said the software sector has made big contribution towards the economy of the state.

“Ours is an industry that contributes about 25 per cent of the state’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product),has created half a million jobs with an average monthly salary of Rs 50,000 and 1.5 million jobs in the secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy. It earns net foreign exchange of Rs 55,000 crore a year and has a capital output ratio of 1:5,” he said.

Murthy also stated that the industry formed slightly more than 25 per cent of the GDP of the state.

“Karnataka’s GDP is probably around Rs 4,50,000 crore or so, our population is between 6.3 and 6.5 crore. Therefore per capita GDP of the state is around Rs 70,000 per year or about Rs 6,000 per month.

“The state last year generated software exports of Rs 1,35,000 crore and the industry formed slightly more than 25 per cent of GDP of the state,” he said.

Drawing a comparison with automobile or heavy industry, he said “the automobile or heavy engineering industry takes about 100 or even 1,000 acres of land, employs about 10,000 people and gives an average salary of Rs 25,000 per person.

Our industry takes the same land and gives jobs to 50,000 people and the average salary is about Rs 50,000 per month.”

“My industry requires about Rs six lakh investment and produces an output of Rs 30 lakh. The capital-to-output ratio of my industry is about 5, which is the highest in the entire history of this country,” Murthy added.

Illustrating the significance of entrepreneurship in job creation and solving poverty, Murthy said “advanced countries and China have realised this idea and have made it easy for entrepreneurs to succeed and this will be a lesson for a state like Karnataka to embrace.”

“Over the last 40 years I have come to the conclusion that the only way India can solve the problem of poverty is through creation of jobs towards income. No slogans can ever solve the problem of poverty. I have also realised this is only possible through entrepreneurship,” he stated.

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