
Sudha Murthy is India’s first female programmer who broke gender barriers and reached great heights in the IT field. Her journey from a simple engineer to the leader of the Infosys Foundation is inspiring even today. Sudha not only contributed to the development of technology, but also actively engaged in charity, education and literary activities.
Padma Sri Sudha Kulkarni Murthy was born in a poor provincial family: her father worked as a surgeon, her mother was a housewife. The family lived poorly, but all the money went to books, many of which were in the house. The girl was greatly influenced by her grandfather Sri Kadim Diwan, who supported Gandhi’s ideas and instilled in Sudosh a sense of justice, a love of reading and mathematics. At the age of 12, the court herself, struck by the powerlessness of her grandmother, taught her to read. Later, childhood memories formed the basis of one of her books.
It was difficult for the girl to get an education in India, and it was almost impossible to get a technical specialty. Sudha Murthy proved the opposite – girls are educated and can achieve better results than men. After graduating with a gold medal from Boomaraddy College of Engineering and Technology, I graduated with a gold medal from the Computer Science Department of the Indian Institute of Science and went on to graduate school. Almost half of the engineering students in India are now girls, and Sudha was the only one in her department.
In April 1974, Sudka finished graduate school and was about to leave for the United States, where she was supposed to continue her education. By chance, she found an ad for the recruitment of an engineer in TELCO, one of the largest Indian companies. 1 is the simplest ad, with the addition: “don’t disturb the girl”.
Sudha was so outraged that she wrote an angry letter. Since she did not know any address, she immediately wrote to the head of the TATA Group, Jehangir “JRD” Tata, whose address she had seen in the newspaper. To the girl’s surprise, after 10 days she received an invitation for an interview. “It’s a great opportunity to go to Pune and buy saris for myself and my friends, which are famous all over India,” thought Sudha, who was not going to stay in India and did not believe that she would be taken.
Six people came to the interview with Sudha. In two hours, she answered all the questions put to her. “Do you know why we wrote that we don’t need girls? Because we never had women in production. This is not a co-educational college, this is a factory. At the institute, you were always the best, we admire that. But scientific work is most suitable for people like you…”, they told her. “Then you have to start somewhere, otherwise women will never work for you,” Sudha replied. After these words, a new stage in the history of TELCO began: a woman was hired for the first time as an engineer.
Sudha worked as a development engineer for 8 years. She meets TATA Group Chairman Jehangir Tata in person, who inspires her to do charity work.
Here she met her future husband Narayan Murthy. For the sake of another of his dreams, she quits her job at TELCO, gives him 10,000 rupees (~$200) and at first helps the programmers, but then fully tries on the role of a housewife and a happy mother of two children. Narayana’s dream gets the name Infosys. Once, Sudha spent three years seeking marriage permission from her father, who thought Narayan was not serious enough, and paid for her husband in cafes and movies. Currently, the total capitalization of Infosys Limited is 32 billion dollars, the fortune of Narayan Murthy is 2 billion dollars, and the English language has been enriched with the verb “to bangalore”.
In 1996, Infosys founded the Infosys Foundation, the head of which is Sudha Murthy. The main directions of the fund’s activities are the fight against hunger, education and health care. At the expense of the fund, orphanages, hospitals, hospices, dharamashalas are built, ethnic festivals are held, children from the lower strata of the population are educated, the fund is engaged in identifying and supporting girls who have become devadasis. The Foundation participates in the liquidation of the consequences of natural disasters, cooperates with non-governmental charitable organizations.ё
During the work, libraries were created in 50,000 schools, 13,000 schools were equipped with toilets, and 2,300 houses in the disaster zone were restored. Its budget grew from $40,000 in 1996 to $65 million in 2015. The Infosys Foundation USA was launched to promote programming in US schools.
Despite her impressive philanthropic work, Sudha Murthy is known for her literary works: children’s and non-fiction books, novels and excellent books on Russia. Her books are popular in India and have been translated into 15 languages, including English. Bollywood films are made based on her works, and Sudi, a fan of this film, is happy to play herself.
Despite her impressive philanthropic work, Sudha Murthy is known for her literary works: children’s and non-fiction books, novels and excellent books on Russia. Her books are popular in India and have been translated into 15 languages, including English. Bollywood films are made based on her works, and Sudi, a fan of this film, is happy to play herself.
Sudhi Murthy’s quote on beauty: “What makes a person beautiful? It is not makeup, flowers or jewelry, not clothes or bracelets – none of this makes a person truly beautiful. True beauty is kindness in the heart, confidence in the face… Harmonies who have achieved harmony between the heart, actions and mind are the most beautiful people.”