In its 25th year of operations, software major Infosys on Friday said it was seeking to become a 'much more' respectable and global company with a truly multi-cultural and multi-ethnic workforce.

Going down memory lane on the silver jubilee year of the company, which made a humble beginning in 1981, the Bangalore-based firm's chairman and chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy said: "Our eternal desire is to become more and more respectable."

"When we set out we didn't set any benchmarks in terms of revenues, profits, market capitalisation and stock price," he said at a press meet in Bangalore.

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"What we did say from day one was we will seek respect from companies, employees, vendor partners, investors and the society."

"I am glad that 50,000-plus team of Infosys people has embraced this philosophy and now it has become part of the DNA," said Murthy.

He recalled that while he was in Bulgaria in 1974, he was deeply disillusioned with Communism and Leftist ideology and realised that entrepreneurship, free enterprise and opportunity for everyone would perhaps be the best model.

He said in the last 25 years, Infosys had several "wonderful moments," including when it won its first customer, imported its first computer and listing of its stocks on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq.

More importantly, Murthy said: "Infosys stands as a shining example of all the good that came from economic reforms unleashed by the then finance minister and the current prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh."

"We have raised the confidence and enthusiasm of hundreds of thousands entrepreneurs in the country that they too can succeed," he said. "We have raised the level of corporate governance in the country. We have demonstrated that it is possible to be headquartered in India, yet compete with the best global corporations."

"It has been a happy, intense, passionate, hectic, rewarding and exhilarating journey of 25 years," Murthy said.

Noting that 25 was an age when one is confident, full of energy and dreams, he said: "This is the time you have to dream of bigger things in life. We have to be successful over the next 75 years so that we become 100. Our eternal desire is to become more and more respectable."

Infosys CEO, president and managing director Nandan M Nilekani said the firm was looking to becoming a "much more global and multinational company, and a more diversified workforce in terms of multi-ethnicity and multi-culturalism."

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