CIF Global Indian Award 2023
Mrs. Sudha Murty
Author, Philanthropist, Chairperson of The Murty Trust
Mrs. Murty was born on August 19, 1950, in Shiggaon, North Karnataka. She grew up in a close-knit family with her parents and three siblings. Mrs. Murty completed her engineering in Electronics & Electrical Engineering from B.V.B College of Engineering & Technology, Hubli in 1972, her master’s degree in computer science from IISc, Bangalore in 1974. She was the first woman engineer to be hired at TELCO (now Tata Motors) and worked there for 8 years.
Mrs. Murty’s story of contributing towards the birth of Infosys, along with her husband Mr. N.R. Narayana Murthy in 1981, is a well-known one. Her unwavering support, dedication, sharp acumen, and decisive leadership qualities played an important role in the making of the Infosys Foundation. During her twenty-five-years long tenure as the founder and chairperson of the Foundation, she has supported multiple projects across India in the fields of healthcare, education, art & culture, women’s empowerment, and public hygiene. Her foremost contribution towards women’s empowerment has been her extensive work with the Devadasi community. The initiative helped rehabilitate and achieve financial independence for more than three thousand Devadasis by providing substitute livelihoods. She has also supported relief efforts during sixteen natural disasters and built more than seventy thousand libraries in Karnataka, fifteen thousand toilets, and five dharmshalas.
Coming from a family with a versatile educational background, Smt. Sudha Murty developed a reading habit at an early age. She is a prolific writer and has penned several bestselling books across genres—from children’s books to short stories, novels, technical books, and travelogues. She mainly writes in English and Kannada, but her books have been translated into all the major Indian languages and have sold over 30 lakh copies around the country. Several of her books have also been translated into Italian and Arabic. Among her most famous titles are Grandmother’s Bag of Stories, Gently Falls the Bakula, Gopi Diaries, Three Thousand Stitches, and Wise and Otherwise. With simple and accessible language, Smt. Sudha Murty’s stories inspire readers young and old. Her writings are replete with values of compassion and kindness, in keeping with our culture and heritage. Her non-fiction stories are based on her time at the Infosys Foundation where she worked with people from all walks of life. As of September 2023, Smt. Sudha Murty has 250 titles to her name.
Over the years, her efforts have been recognized with many Honorary Doctorates and prestigious awards including the Padma Bhushan & Padma Shri from the Government of India in 2023 & 2006 respectively; Sahitya Academy Award in 2023; the R.K. Narayan Award for Literature in 2006 & the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award in 2020. She was also awarded the Rajyothsava and Attimabbe award for excellence in Kannada literature from the Government of Karnataka in 2000 and 2012, respectively. She is also the recipient of eleven honorary doctorates from universities across India, including IIT Kanpur.
