Narayana Murthy's BIG claim, says this IIT lost Rs 2000 crore Infosys shares due to...

Over 20 years ago, Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy offered to donate Rs 8 crore worth of Infosys shares to IIT Kanpur. His intention was to support one of India’s top engineering colleges with long-term financial help. However, the plan couldn’t go ahead due to a central government rule that prevents educational institutions from accepting donations in the form of company shares. Today, that missed opportunity looks massive. According to Murthy, the value of those Infosys shares would have grown 256 times through bonus shares alone. This means the original Rs 8 crore donation would now be worth around Rs 2,000 crore. He added that even just the dividends from those shares would have earned IIT-Kanpur Rs 500 crore in the last eight years.

A similar offer made to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) met the same fate. Murthy said those shares would have multiplied by 768 times if IISc had been allowed to accept and keep them. His estimate shows that, if equity donations had been allowed, they could have added up to a massive Rs 15,000–Rs 16,000 crore in value by now for institutions like IITs and IISc.

But the problem is not just in the past. Even today, government rules only allow educational institutions to invest money in fixed deposits or very low-risk instruments. This limits their ability to grow funds like top universities in countries such as the US, where endowments are often invested in equity and generate large annual returns.

To work around this issue, Murthy’s family investment office, Catamaran, has started a unique scholarship programme at IIM Ahmedabad. The scholarship uses a smart mix of stock market index funds and fixed income instruments. It ensures that the top student of the first year MBA programme gets full financial support — including fees, hostel, food, and books — every year for the next 20 years. The scholarship is purely merit-based and not linked to financial background.

Murthy also mentioned that another donation offer from his wife, who is an IISc alumna, was blocked for the same reason — rules against government institutions holding equity. He expressed disappointment that India’s educational sector still misses out on this kind of long-term capital growth due to outdated regulations.