Hazare's anti-graft campaign is good for the country: Murthy

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Software icon and Infosys' founder N.R. Narayana Murthy today said he was hopeful that the draft of Lokpal bill, expected to be tabled in the Parliament in a day or two, would satisfy all well meaning citizens.

"Mr Anna Hazare, his team and the government have been in talks and they are discussing. I am positive that they will come out with something that will satisfy all the well meaning citizens of this country," the Chairman Emeritus of Infosys said here.

Speaking to reporters at the sidelines of a function where he was conferred the Mother Teresa Award by Indian Development Foundation, he remarked that the anti-graft campaign launched by Hazare was "good for the country and there is no doubt about that".

"All Indians want corruption to come down, whether it is in the government, opposition or in the corporate world and those belonging to civil society," Murthy said. "The Prime Minister has said yesterday that they are accelerating the progress on introducing this (Lokpal) bill in the Parliament, so I think it is good. We are all very happy."

At the function, Murthy said even the projected seven per cent GDP growth for the current fiscal, as revised by the government, is pretty good in the current circumstances. But the biggest challenge is how to bring the majority poor to the mainstream. Quoting a study which said 350 million Indians live on Rs 36 a day, Murthy lamented: "With this kind of income you cannot keep our body and soul together".

He said there were two sections of society in India. The first one was "galloping" with good economic growth. Children in these families have reasonably good education and comfort in their lives, decent health-care and nutrition. But a vast section is still struggling and suffering. The government is indeed making efforts to make their lives better.

The government cannot do it on its own and it is the duty of civil society and corporates to become an "enthusiastic" partner to ensure better lives for the poor,he said.