Sudha Murty takes oath in Kannada as Rajya Sabha member as Narayana Murthy looks on. Watch

Sudha Murty takes her oath as Rajya Sabha member as husband Narayana Murthy looks on, on Thursday. (Image credit: ANI)

Sudha Murty on Thursday took oath as a Rajya Sabha MP in the presence of her husband and Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy at Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar's chamber in Parliament House. Also present during the swearing-in was Union Minister Piyush Goyal.

The engineer-turned-philanthropist and author, who hails from Hubli district in Karnataka, took her oath in Kannada.

#WATCH | Author and philanthropist Sudha Murty, nominated to the Rajya Sabha by President Droupadi Murmu, takes oath as a member of the Upper House of Parliament, in the presence of House Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar

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Infosys founder Narayan Murty and Union Minister Piyush Goyal… pic.twitter.com/vN8wqXCleB

— ANI (@ANI) March 14, 2024

On being nominated to the Rajya Sabha, she told ANI, "I am happy and at the same time I feel I have been given more responsibility. It is very nice of him, he (PM Modi) appreciated my work, I want to thank him. I am happy that I will get a bigger platform to work for the poor."

She was referring to a tweet by Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighting her contribution across different fields.

"I am delighted that the President of India has nominated Sudha Murty Ji to the Rajya Sabha. Sudha Ji's contributions to diverse fields including social work, philanthropy and education have been immense and inspiring. Her presence in the Rajya Sabha is a powerful testament to our 'Nari Shakti', exemplifying the strength and potential of women in shaping our nation's destiny. Wishing her a fruitful Parliamentary tenure," the Prime Minister had written on X.

Reacting to her nomination, Narayana Murthy had said, "Our family is happy that she received this prestigious responsibility. We feel she richly deserves this nomination."

Sudha Murty, 73, the former chairperson of Infosys Foundation and the author of several books, mostly for children, was nominated to the Rajya Sabha on International Women’s Day last Friday.

She is also renowned for her contribution to Kannada and English literature and is a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Bal Sahitya Puraskar, the Padma Shri (2006) and the Padma Bhushan (2023).

Murty, who was the first woman engineer to have worked with TELCO, is famously known to have provided the seed capital of Rs 10,000 from her emergency funds to her husband to start Infosys, which now has a market cap of over USD 80 billion. Her daughter Akshata is married to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

(With inputs from agencies)

Read more: Akshata Murty celebrates women in business, calls mother Sudha Murty a role model