New Delhi, Nov. 5 -- Long before Infosys and Wipro became two of India's biggest IT companies, their founders, NR Narayana Murthy and Azim Premji, had an unexpected encounter that could have changed the course of India's technology industry. Murthy once applied for a job at Wipro, but Azim Premji turned him down. Years later, the Wipro founder reportedly described the decision as one of the biggest mistakes of his career.

Narayana Murthy himself recalled the episode in a 2024 interview with CNBC-TV18, saying Premji had subsequently acknowledged that he should have hired him.

"Azim once told me that one of the biggest mistakes he committed was not to hire me," Murthy said.

In retrospect, had Wipro hired Murthy, the company might have ga...