Priya Bharti Sudha Murty, the wife of Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy, is one of India’s leading philanthropists and an acclaimed writer in Kannada and English. She has more than 30 books and 200 titles to her credit, including novels, non-fiction works, travelogues, technical books, and memoirs.
Murty, 71, will retire from Infosys Foundation (the philanthropic arm of India’s second-largest software exporter, Infosys) this month after heading it for 25 years, from its inception in 1996. She hopes to continue her work through the family’s Murty foundation, apart from spending time on one of her biggest interests, archaeology.
Via Research we found that Sudha Murty spoke about how she had to change herself in order to bring change into people’s lives, how philanthropy has evolved in India, and her advice for GenZ and young women.
Sudha Murty says, ‘We started Infosys foundation on December 6th. The amount given then by Infosys was Rs 32 lakh. I felt it’s a lot of money and (wondered) whom to give it to. Today, even Rs 400 crore is not big money because there are a number of issues: Covid, malnutrition, hunger, education, and so on. The problems are many; you can choose some of them, which you feel are within your reach. You only have to choose the causes close to your heart because philanthropy is compassion and passion. So, we chose malnutrition and hunger, we chose education, we chose medical help, then we chose the art and craft culture of India.
I also learned a lot about my own country because my country is not Bollywood. It is not software. It is the difficulties of the poorest of the poor. Unless the children of our country get two sets of clothes, three meals a day, and good drinking water and toilet facilities, learn up to class 12, with good communication and vocational skills, our country will not progress.
In her book, Three Thousand Stitches, she wrote about a piece of advice as her father gave it to her in that context she says, I used to wear a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and I had bobbed hair. So, when I used to go to a community and sit with them, they always felt that I’m different from them. You should dress or you should be like an Aam Aadmi.
I started wearing a saree, tied my bun. And then I told them I’m a school teacher. And then I started having a dialogue. And then I realized what they wanted from life. The second thing I changed a lot is my patience. I learned that there are so many difficulties and people get frustrated; you should keep quiet and patiently listen to them. Understand them. There’s no point in getting upset. It is not a computer, where you press a button and you get results. They’re all human beings; listen to them, and then talk solutions.
The third thing I realized is that there is much difficulty in life. You should always thank God: ‘Thank you, God, you have given me so much. Let me serve your children.’
Sudha’s thoughts on who should succeed her and the message that she loves to pass on to public is: to my successor, I want to say: be compassionate, be nice, continue the good projects developed over a period of time. And then they have their own way. Because every person who heads the foundation has a different approach to life. For me, these are my priorities; for the next person, the priorities may be different. So, we should not comment on different priorities. But the most important is that we connect with the lowest strata of society, and help them in a difficult situation.
Murty Foundation is my focus, I’ll continue that — there is no boundary for me and there’s no condition. Apart from that I want to pursue my archaeological studies as well. I’m very fond of archaeology. So, if Covid reduces, then I want to go and see Dholavira, which has been on my wishlist for a long time. I want to see Dholavira, Unakoti, Rakhigarhi and many other projects that I have kept. I want to do that along with my philanthropy.
It depends on what is required immediately. Maybe healthcare, definitely. I’m the daughter of a doctor and the sister of a doctor. So, it is always very important for me — health care, malnutrition, I will do. Helping the poor, destitute… I will definitely do all those things. But in what proportion I want to do this, I have not yet decided.
Rohan (son Rohan Murty) may be involved to some extent. But I have always told him there are certain areas I want to do. I have always believed in non-porous compartments in terms of philanthropy. So, I really want to do my work; like archaeology is my passion. For Narayana, Murthy science is a passion. Rohan is a combination of both.
Her corporate and personal philanthropy evolved in India and a mindset shift in terms of money and giving back
When you look at the history of India, for more than 1,000 years, we have always been oppressed. And we Indians did not have much money. There was a small percentage of people who had a lot of money — kings and zamindars had a lot more money — but most of the aam aadmis did not have money. And people did a little bit of philanthropy, always through food, So, philanthropy was there, but it may not have been in the most modern way or systematic way.
Today, there is a lot more income in India. People who were middle, lower middle class, once have become upper middle class, have become rich. People have become millionaires very fast.
Today, you have one or two children. The result of that is people have excess or more money than they need. So, I can see youngsters are more philanthropic compared to my days. I see a lot of youngsters; they want to work on Saturday, Sunday with people who are poor or who require help. The newer generation has become much more magnanimous. So, I think there’s a very bright future for philanthropy in the coming years.
India produces a lot of engineers. But, 70 percent of them are unemployable. That’s what the statistics say. Even though they know the subject, they can’t communicate well. So, I feel corporate houses should see that these students are employed with proper training.
The second thing is improving education at the school level so that when they come out, they are employable. Third is, you should care more for health because people always think they will be healthy for a long time. It’s not true for the modern generation due to pollution and many other stresses. In the olden days, we used to take our parents to hospital. Today, parents take their children to the hospital. So, health is an important issue.
Sudha says For me, working is a form of relaxation — I enjoy it, so every day is a holiday for me. When I go to my work, that’s a holiday for me.
If you enjoy your work, it is never going to burn you out. You should enjoy your work. Stress levels are the same all the time. In the olden days, there were no medicines, and if the child was not well, you did not know if the child would survive or not. Today, you have very good childcare. But before that there was no independence so you were stressed under the British.
So, stress levels don’t change. You should change. So, every day is a joy because I see the effect of the work. I see poor people getting help. I feel nice at the end of the day when I sleep.
We used to have only 90 days’ maternity leave; today you get 6 months’ maternity leave. Then your husband gets leave. We never had such things then. For every meeting you had to travel all the way for the meeting, even though it was one hour away. Zoom has reduced travelling, and work-from-home also helps a lot. If you have a separate working area, then it helps a lot.
If you have an understanding partner then it becomes much easier. So, things have changed a lot and there is a lot more focus on one or two children.
The negative part of it is you focus too much on children — you should allow children also to be independent. They are pampered a lot and it is not good for the child. Murty says, Maybe it also comes from peer pressure… As much as possible, don’t get into peer pressure. There is always a Bill Gates richer than you. If you’re good-looking, there will always be an Aishwarya Rai, so don’t go on comparing.
