Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has sparked a debate on social media with his views on the role of profit in essential professions, arguing that businesses like his have a responsibility to sustain what he calls the 'bedrock' of human civilisation.

In a post on X, Vembu asked: "Do we want our farmers, teachers, doctors and priests to be profit-driven?" He suggested that not all professions can be driven by profit, and that modern economic theory encourages "essentially all human activity to be profit-driven," which he said "leads to a dystopian world."

Vembu argued that markets rest on a foundation of human civilisation, spirituality, and culture that is itself not market-driven. He wrote: "That raises the question: who supports that bedrock? The ones who are in the 'market', companies like us… the entire purpose of profit is to sustain this bedrock." He categorised this bedrock into nature (food and spirit), nurture (teaching and spirit), culture (entertainment and spirit), and scripture (spirit).

Farmers, doctors, teachers, and priests

Vembu elaborated on his view that people in these professions are often driven by passion and ethics rather than money. "Ask a farmer who made a choice to be in farming and they would tell you it is their love of farming," he wrote. "They would never mention money and in fact, farmers reluctantly abandon farming when they can no longer afford it."

He drew a similar comparison for doctors, saying their professional and ethical code requires them to put the patient first, and that "people who become doctors for money are not respected by other doctors." He added that "no one ever becomes a teacher because the money is good," and "no one ever trains to be a priest for the money."

Vembu acknowledged that economic models would consider such behaviour "irrational," but argued that "without that deeply evolved character trait in humanity, civilization itself would collapse."

Response to critics

Vembu also addressed critics who called him an "anti-capitalist" for his views. He wrote: "When I say people like me in business should support these noble professions, I must be an anti-capitalist — say people who haven't earned a single rupee of honest profit and don't know what 'capital' even means (no it is not a line item in a spreadsheet)!"

In response to a comment about private equity hospitals and scams in the name of spirituality, Vembu said: "Idealism is not naive. Civilisation itself is an ideal we cannot allow to be destroyed by the barbarians at the gate wielding private equity." He added: "A finance dominated world is a world where ideals go to die. That is why ancients, from every spiritual tradition, looked down on making money on money endlessly."

Vembu, who is the founder and chief scientist of Zoho, a business software company, has lived in Mathalamparai village in Tamil Nadu since 2019 after returning from the US. Forbes estimated the combined net worth of Vembu and his siblings at $6 billion in its 2025 India rich list.