Sudha Murthy: Social Entrepreneur & Chairperson of the Infosys Foundation

Sudha Murthy
Sudha Murthy: Social Entrepreneur and Author

About Sudha Murthy: Chairperson of the Infosys Foundation & Social Entrepreneur

Sudha Murthy is a social entrepreneur and a very good Indian author. She is Kannada and English author and an Indian engineering teacher.

She began her professional career in engineering and computer science. Sudha Murthy is the chairperson of the Infosys Foundation and a member of the public health care initiatives of the Gates Foundation.

She has founded several orphanages, practiced in rural areas and supported the movement to provide all Karnataka government schools with computer and library.

Murthy founded ‘The Murthy Classical Library of India’ at Harvard University. She initiated a bold step to introduce computer and library facility in all schools of Karnataka.

In 1995, she got “Best Teacher Award” from Rotary Club at Bengaluru. She is more known for her social work and contribution to literature in Kannada and English.

She wrote Kannada novel called Dollar Sose and later it translated in English as Dollar Bahu. In 2001, that was adapted as a televised dramatic series by Zee TV. She appeared in Karamveer episode of Kaun Banega Crorpati season 11.

Early life and education:

Sudha Murthy was born on 19th August 1950 into a Deshastha Madhwa Brahmin family in Shiggaon, Haveri in Karnataka, India.

Her father was a surgeon Dr. R. H. Kulkarni and mother was Vimala Kulkarni. Her parents and maternal grandparents raised her.

Her first notable work from her childhood was ‘How I Taught my Grandmother to Read’. She completed her bachelor in Engineering in Electronics Engineering from B.V.B. college of Engineering & Technology.

Image Source: Facebook

She stood first in her class and received Gold Medal from the Chief Minister of Karnataka. She completed her Masters in Engineering in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Science.

Again, she stood first in her class and received a Gold Medal from the Indian Institute of Engineers.

Career of Sudha Murthy:

TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO) hired her, she was the first female engineer hired by TELCO.

She joined company as a Development Engineer at Pune and worked in Mumbai and Jamshedpur. Later she joined Walchand Group of Industries at Pune as Senior Systems Analyst.

In 1996, she started Infosys Foundation and until now, she is the Trustee of Infosys Foundation and visiting faculty at the PG Centre of Bangalore University.

She taught at Christ University also. She has written and published many books. From them two are travelogues, six novels, three educative books and two technical books.

Infosys endowed and inaugurated two institute of higher learning; they are housing the Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) department, H.R. Kadim Diwan Building at IIT Kanpur and Narayan Rao Melgiri Memorial National Law Library at NLSIU.

Personal life:

Sudha married N. R. Narayana Murthy, while she was working with TELCO. They have two children Akshata and Rohan.

Akshata married Rishi Sunk, her British Indian classmate. She is now finance minister of UK. Sudha is very fond of watching movies.

In an interview with Filmfare she said that “I have 500 DVDs that I watch in my home theatre. I see a film in totality – its editing, direction… all aspects. People know me as an author, as a social entrepreneur, but no one knows me as a movie buff.

That’s why I am glad to do this interview with Filmfare”. J. R. D. Tata advised her to left her job and assist Narayana Murthy.

Social Activity: Infosys Foundation

Murthy’s Infosys Foundation is a public charitable trust founded in 1996. Murthy is one of the trustees there.

She has built 2,300 houses in flood-affected areas through Foundation. Her social work covers public hygiene, healthcare, education, women empowerment, art & culture and poverty alleviation at the grassroots level.

Read also: Social Stories of Indian Social Entrepreneurs

She built around 70,000 libraries in schools so far. She is helping rural areas by building 16000 toilets and many toilets in Bengaluru city also.

Sudha Murthy has handled natural disasters like the tsunami in Tamil Nadu and Andaman, earthquake in Gujarat, floods in Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, etc.

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In 2011-12, the Karnataka Government awarded her the prestigious “Attimabbe Award” for her literary work.