Infosys denies move on IIT

N.R. Narayana Murthy, chairman and chief executive officer, and Nandan Nilekani, managing director, president and chief operating officer of Infosys Technologies have denied that they were part of any bid to take over of the five Indian Institutes of Technology.

Reacting to widely circulated reports in the media, Mr Narayana Murthy and Mr Nilekani said in a joint statement that the idea of such a take-over "is abhorrent to us".

The reports had quoted Kanwal Rekhi, president of The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE) the venture capital group, as saying they met prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and proposed an industry take-over of the IITs and Mr Vajpayee had responded positively to the idea. Mr Rekhi was quoted as saying: "Once we get the final go-ahead from the government, we plan to put IIT alumni like Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani in the proposed council."

In their joint statement, Mr Narayana Murthy and Mr Nilekani said, "Both of us have tremendous respect for Mr. Rekhi for his entrepreneurship and his desire to raise funds for the IITs. However, we want to make it absolutely and emphatically clear that we are not part of any take-over effort. We firmly believe that the institutes of learning, including the IITs, IISc, regional and other engineering colleges are sacred and have no place in any 'take-over' strategy. Our only desire is to assist in raising funds for these venerable institutions so that they can be stronger, and to also contribute in any other manner as deemed appropriate by these institutions."

"Both of us were out of India when the group met the prime minister, and we have not had any discussion with Mr. Rekhi on this issue. It is our fervent hope that Mr. Rekhi was misquoted and that he has no desire to take over any educational institution in India," the statement added.