Sudha Murty nominated to Rajya Sabha: Life and times of the philanthropist and author

Their journey towards success began with a loan of Rs 10,000 from Sudha Murty to her husband Narayana Murthy in 1981.

Sudha Murty, an IISc postgraduate, Padma Award winner, philanthropist, author, and now a Presidential nominee for Rajya Sabha, has raised the standard for women in public life. Her unwavering support for husband and Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy right from the company's inception is well chronicled, as is her austere lifestyle and financial values taught to children Rohan and Akshata.

The 73-year-old's nomination comes on International Women's Day, received the Padma Shri in 2006 and the Padma Bhushan in 2023. Murty is the chairperson of the Murty Trust and has written several books such as "Wise and Otherwise", "The Mother I Never Knew: Two Novellas' and so on.

She also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for being nominated to the Rajya Sabha.

Also read: Sudha Murty nominated to Rajya Sabha by President; powerful testament to 'Nari Shakti', says PM Modi

Born as Sudha Kulkarni on August 19, 1950, in Karnataka's Shiggaon, she completed her BE in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from BVB College of Engineering and Technology and did M. Tech at the Tata Institute in Bangalore. She faced several challenges during her college days as women were not encouraged to pursue a field like Engineering and were not considered for good job opportunities. But after all that, Sudha Murthy was the first and only female employee at Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company.

During a candid chat on 'The Kapil Sharma Show', she shared one such experience when she wrote a letter to JRD Tata regarding a notice posted at her institute of a job opportunity, discouraging women from applying for the role. She expressed her anger in the letter saying that women should also get equal opportunities or the country won’t progress. Her letter had a significant impact because Tata revoked the policy shortly after receiving it.

Also watch: Sudha Murty receives Padma Bhushan from President Droupadi Murmu. Watch

During an interview with Moneycontrol, the couple shared the story of how they met. Sudha Murty met her husband Narayana Murty in the 1970s when she went to borrow books from him who was Sudha Murty’s friend’s roommate. Narayana Murty invited Sudha Kulkarni out for dinner at a local eatery and since then they started dating. While he worked at Tata Administrative Services (TAS), the couple would go on movie dates, risking breaching the night curfew at the women's hostel in Pune, where she lived. The couple also share their love for South Indian dishes and Hindi songs.

Also Read: My wife was my safety net, supported my dream: NR Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murty on the Infosys journey and their life goals

Their journey towards success began with a loan of Rs 10,000 from Sudha Murty to her husband Narayana Murty in 1981. She saved up all that money over the years as an emergency fund, which was ultimately utilised to start the company, making her an "angel investor" in Infosys, one of the world's largest IT companies and now has a market value of about $80 billion.

Murty, who led the Infosys Foundation for over 25 years, retired in December 2021 and continues to work on charitable causes through her family's foundation. She was named to the PM CARES Fund Trust Board of Directors in 2022 and received the Padma Bhushan last year. She also founded the Murty Classical Library of India at Harvard University.

The Murty family is delighted that she has been given this prestigious responsibility and said that she deserved this nomination.