Full Name Sudha Kulkarni Siblings Shrinivas Kulkarni Role Social Worker | Name Sudha Murthy Citizenship Indian | |
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Born 19 August 1950 (age 73) ( 1950-08-19 ) Shiggaon, Karnataka, India Residence Bangalore, Karnataka, India Alma mater BVB College of EngineeringIndian Institute of Science Occupation Chairperson, Infosys Foundation Spouse N. R. Narayana Murthy (m. 1978) Children Rohan Murthy, Akshata Murthy Parents R.H. Kulkarni, Vimala Kulkarni Books How I Taught My Grandmot, Wise & Otherwise, The Old Man And His God, The Day I Stopped Drinking, Something Happened on the W Similar People N R Narayana Murthy, Rohan Murthy, Sudha Chandran, Shrinivas Kulkarni, Nandan Nilekani | ||
Sudha murthy
Sudha Murthy (also spelled Murty; née Kulkarni on 19 August 1950) is an Indian philanthropist and writer in Kannada and English.
Contents
- Sudha murthy
- Sudha murthy sharjah international book fair 2015
- Early life education
- Career
- Awards
- Personal life
- Social activity
- References
Murthy began her professional career as a computer scientist and engineer. She is the chairperson of the Infosys Foundation and a member of public health care initiatives of the Gates Foundation. She has founded several orphanages, participated in rural development efforts, supported the movement to provide all Karnataka government schools with computer and library facilities, and established 'The Murthy Classical Library of India' at Harvard University. Murthy initiated a bold move to introduce computer and library facilities in all schools in Karnataka & taught computer science. She got "Best Teacher Award" in 1995 from Rotary Club at Bangalore. Murthy is best known for her social work and her contribution to literature in Kannada and English. Dollar Bahu (English: Dollar Daughter-in-Law), a novel originally authored by her in Kannada and later translated into English as Dollar Bahu, was adapted as a televised dramatic series by Zee TV in 2001. Murthy has also acted in the Marathi film Pitruroon and the Kannada film Prarthana.
Sudha murthy sharjah international book fair 2015
Early life & education
Sudha Murthy was born on 19 August 1950 in Shiggaon in Karnataka, India, the daughter of surgeon Dr. R. H. Kulkarni and his wife Vimala Kulkarni. She and her siblings were raised by her parents and maternal grandparents. These childhood experiences form the historical basis for her first notable work entitled How I Taught my Grandmother to Read & Other Stories. Murthy completed a B.E. in Electrical Engineering from the B.V.B. College of Engineering & Technology, standing first in her class and receiving a gold medal from the Chief Minister of Karnataka. Murthy completed M.E. in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Science, standing first in her class and receiving a gold medal from the Indian Institute of Engineers.
Career
Murthy became the first female engineer hired at India's largest auto manufacturer TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO). Murthy joined the company as a Development Engineer in Pune and then worked in Mumbai & Jamshedpur as well. Murthy had written a postcard to the company's Chairman complaining of the "men only" gender bias at TELCO. As a result, she was granted a special interview and hired immediately. She later joined Walchand Group of Industries at Pune as Senior Systems Analyst.
In 1996, she started Infosys Foundation & till date has been the Trustee of Infosys Foundation and a Visiting Professor at the PG Center of Bangalore University. She also taught at Christ College. She has written and published many books, of which two are travelogues, two technical books, six novels and three educative books.
Two institutions of higher learning, the H.R. Kadim Diwan Building housing the Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) department at IIT Kanpur and the Narayan Rao Melgiri Memorial National Law Library at NLSIU, were both endowed and inaugurated by the Infosys Foundation.
Awards
The following is an incomplete list of awards for Sudha Murthy:
Personal life
Sudha Murthy married N.R. Narayana Murthy while employed as an engineer at TELCO in Pune. The couple have two children Akshata and Rohan. Her daughter Akshata married Rishi Sunak, her classmate from Stanford, a British Indian. He is a partner at a hedge-fund involved in charity in the UK.
In an interview with the Filmfare magazine, Mrs. Murthy said “I have 500 DVDs that I watch in my home theatre. I see a film in totality – its direction, editing… all aspects. People know me as a social worker, as an author… but no one knows me as a movie buff. That’s why I am glad to do this interview with Filmfare”. The cineaste, who even went to the extent of watching 365 films in 365 days confides, “I could have actually become a film journalist. I never get bored of movies!” In an installation ceremony of chairpersons of Ficci Ladies Organisation (FLO), Murthy said the advice she got from J.R.D.Tata when she left her job to assist her husband Narayana Murthy to startup company Infosys which changed her life. He told her to remember that no one was owner of money. “You are only trustee of money and it always changes hands. When you are successful, give it back to society that gave you so much goodwill”.
Social activity
Murthy’s social work covers the healthcare, education, empowerment of women, public hygiene, art and culture, and poverty alleviation at the grassroots level. Her vision of a library for each school has resulted in the setting up of 50,000 libraries so far. She is helping out rural areas by building 10,000 public toilets and several hundred toilets in the city of Bangalore. Infosys Foundation is a public charitable trust founded in 1996 and Murthy is one of the trustees. Through Foundation she has built 2,300 houses in the flood affected areas. She has handled national natural disasters like tsunami in Tamil Nadu and Andaman, earthquake in Kutch – Gujarat, hurricane and floods in Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and drought in Karnataka and Maharashtra. The Government of Karnataka awarded her the prestigious literary award, the ‘Attimabbe Award’ –for her literary work for the year 2011–12.