MUMBAI: Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy on Thursday said the country was "far, far away" from realising the ambition of developing smart cities, a flagship programme of the Narendra Modi government. "Since we are far, far away from smart cities, I did not talk about it," Murthy said, when asked why he did not mention the smart city project during his one-hour lecture on 'City Systems' here this evening. "Poor infrastructure can drive away investments and talent," he said, and pointed out how Mumbai has suffered due to this continued neglect. "10 or 12 years ago, the desire was to position Mumbai as the Asian financial centre. We are nowhere near that dream for the very simple reason that investments are not coming in, talents are not simply available, productivity has gone down and growth has slowed down.

Source: Times of India August 11, 2016 17:03 UTC