“Growing up, I dreamt of being economically independent because I always believed women should be so.”

An inspiration to the true sense, Sudha Murthy is an accomplished engineer, businesswoman, philanthropist, teacher, and author. Donning various hats, Murthy has proven her mettle and set a benchmark by venturing into nontraditional field of engineering, which was quite unusual for women during her times. She was born in a traditional Kannada Brahmin family to Dr. R.H. Kulkarni and Smt. Vimala Kulkarni.

Once when a job posted by TELCO mentioned that women candidates need not apply for the job, Murthy wrote a letter to JRD Tata challenging the policy. Surprisingly, JRD Tata took cognizance of this, and asked his staff to interview her and check her technical skills. This is how she ended up being the first technical officer at TELCO. Later, she went on to become a cofounder of the IT company Infosys, along with her husband Narayan Murthy. She had already followed unexplored paths by seeking admission in an engineering college, which was quite unusual, 50 years ago. She had no access to toilets or canteen facility.

“Doing what you like is freedom, liking what you do is happiness.”

Furthermore, Murthy is also involved in many philanthropy activities through Infosys Foundation. She primarily started by working for sex workers. Through her organization, she built approximately 16,000 toilets for girls across different projects. Besides, she started her writing career by writing tales about the real-life incidents of people whom she met during her social work. She writes women-centric, mythological, as well as fictional stories from audiences of all age groups. Her collection for kids has become quite popular too. She has been conferred with various awards including: