Infosys sponsors a major Indo-French art exhibition

Sponsoring an ambitious Indo-French art exhibition in Paris is the way of bridging and building cultural harmony in lucrative foreign markets for Infosys. In a major development in this regard, the company is promoting ‘Paris-Delhi-Bombay’, an ambitious exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, Paris. The idea is to boost its own brand image.

The Centre Pompidou is one of Europe’s largest museums for modern art. The show, conceptualized over two years by its president Alain Seban, tries to make a taste of contemporary Indian landscape available to the people in France. With 30 artists from India and 17 from France, Seban wants to facilitate a smooth exchange of culture for building long-term relations between the two. Finding it quite an appropriate match with the broad theme of cultural integration it wishes to push, Infosys opted to sponsor it.

However, art sponsorship in India is still at a rather very nascent stage, according to well-known curator Shwetal Patel, who points to more pressing matters and areas where they can use their CSR resources. Vice president & global head (SAP Practice) at Infosys, Rajesh K. Murthy, states that the company's move is aimed at bringing the two cultures together as part of a confidence building move for improving their image as an Indian IT firm.

Murthy added that sponsoring it had nothing to do with negative sentiments towards outsourcing, as they don’t face any such issues in France. It’s a new way for an Indian firm, some sort of a pilot, which is open to such ideas, although it would wait to see the effects created by the current show. An event of this nature, the company feels, has quite a few positive outcomes. An exchange of cultural ideas makes people follow each other better, and work more efficiently.

Another positive outcome for Infosys is indirect boost to its expansion plans by overcoming the culture and language barrier.