Of all the Indian business families whose names have entered the global public conversation in the last decade, none has done so quite as remarkably as the Murthys. The Mysore-born N.R. Narayana Murthy founded Infosys in 1981 with ₹10,000 borrowed from his wife. His Kannada-Brahmin-engineer wife Sudha Murty went on to become one of the most beloved authors and philanthropists in modern India, and now sits in the Indian Parliament. Their daughter Akshata Murty moved to Stanford for an MBA, met an Englishman called Rishi Sunak, and ended up, on 25 October 2022, walking into 10 Downing Street as the wife of the first British Asian Prime Minister. From a single-bedroom flat in Pune to the steps of Number 10 — that journey is the journey one Kannada Brahmin family has made in two generations.

The Family's Roots: The Kannada Brahmins of Old Mysore

The Murthys belong to the Kannada Brahmin community of southern Karnataka, formerly the princely state of Mysore. N.R. Narayana Murthy was born in Sidlaghatta, a small town in the Kolar district near Bangalore, on 20 August 1946 — exactly a year before India became independent. His family followed the long Mysore tradition of teaching, scholarship, and salaried professional work.

His Parents: A Schoolteacher Father and an Eight-Person Household

R. H. Narayana Rao was Narayana Murthy's father — a schoolteacher who spent his career educating children in small-town Karnataka. He was a deeply religious, Sanskrit-reading Hindu who raised eight children on a teacher's salary and instilled in all of them the values of education, frugality, and self-respect.

His mother — about whom Narayana Murthy has spoken often, especially about her sense of public duty — was a homemaker. Narayana Murthy is one of eight siblings; he has described in interviews how his father's monthly salary had to be allocated extremely carefully, and how the family's wealth was always in books rather than possessions.

He attended the National Institute of Engineering, Mysore, earning his B.E. in Electrical Engineering in 1967, and then the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, where he earned his M.Tech in Electrical Engineering in 1969.

His Wife: Sudha Murty — The First Female Engineer at TELCO

The woman Narayana Murthy married is, in her own right, one of the most consequential public figures in modern India.

Sudha Murty, born Sudha Kulkarni on 19 August 1950 in Shiggaon, a small town in Karnataka, is the daughter of Dr. R. H. Kulkarni, a surgeon who served at the local hospital, and Vimala Kulkarni. She trained as an engineer at the B.V.B. College of Engineering and Technology, Hubli, becoming the first female engineering student admitted to that institution. She later earned an M.E. in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

In 1974, at the age of 24, she wrote a letter to J.R.D. Tata, the legendary chairman of the Tata Group, complaining that the Tata company TELCO (now Tata Motors) was hiring only men. Tata personally responded and arranged her interview — and Sudha Murty became the first female engineer hired at TELCO in Pune. She worked there as a development engineer.

She married Narayana Murthy on 10 February 1978. When her husband decided in 1981 to leave his existing job to start what would become Infosys, it was Sudha who, out of her own savings, lent him ₹10,000 — the founding capital of the company that would, three decades later, transform the Indian economy.

Sudha has, since stepping back from Infosys's direct operations, become one of the most prolific and beloved authors in modern India. Her novels and short stories — written in Kannada, Marathi, Hindi, and English — sell in the millions. She has received the Padma Shri (2006) and the Padma Bhushan (2023), and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of India's Parliament) by President Droupadi Murmu in March 2024. She also chairs the Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the company her husband founded.

Their Children: Akshata and Rohan

Narayana Murthy and Sudha have two children — and between them, the two children represent two very different but equally remarkable careers.

Akshata Murty: From Stanford to 10 Downing Street

Akshata Narayan Murty, born 25 April 1980 in Hubli, Karnataka, was raised in Pune and Bangalore. She studied at Claremont McKenna College in California, then earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2006. It was at Stanford that she met a young British classmate named Rishi Sunak, then on his way to a career at Goldman Sachs and later in the British Conservative Party.

She and Rishi married on 17 August 2009 in a two-day Hindu ceremony in Bangalore attended by 1,000 guests — including Narayana Murthy's IIT classmates and Sudha's Kannada literary circle.

Akshata herself runs a fashion label, Akshata Designs, founded in 2008, and remains a director of Catamaran Ventures UK, the British arm of her father's investment firm. She holds a substantial shareholding in Infosys in her own right.

Rishi Sunak entered the British Parliament in 2015, served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Boris Johnson during the COVID years, and became the first British Asian, first Hindu, and youngest modern Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 25 October 2022. He served as Prime Minister until July 2024.

Akshata and Rishi have two daughters:

  • Krishna Sunak, born 2011
  • Anoushka Sunak, born 2013

The family kept the girls deliberately out of the public eye throughout Rishi's time in Downing Street.

Rohan Murty: The Harvard Computer Scientist

Rohan Narayana Murty, born 1983, is Narayana Murthy's son. He studied at Cornell University for his undergraduate degree and earned a PhD in Computer Science from Harvard University. He has founded Soroco, a Boston-based business-process automation company, and is married to Aparna Krishnan, a Bangalore-based entrepreneur and former management consultant. The couple has children and lives between India and the United States.

The Murthy Family Tree at a Glance

Community / Origins

  • Kannada Brahmin community of old Mysore
  • Family hometown: Sidlaghatta, Kolar district, Karnataka

Parents (Narayana Murthy's)

  • Father: R. H. Narayana Rao — schoolteacher in small-town Karnataka
  • Mother: R. H. Narayana Rao's wife (homemaker; eight children)

N.R. Narayana Murthy

  • Born 20 August 1946, Sidlaghatta, Karnataka
  • B.E. Electrical Engineering, NIE Mysore (1967)
  • M.Tech, IIT Kanpur (1969)
  • Co-founded Infosys in Pune on 7 July 1981 with six engineers and ₹10,000 of capital lent by his wife
  • Chairman, Infosys (1981–2011); Chairman Emeritus thereafter
  • Padma Shri (2000); Padma Vibhushan (2008)

Wife: Sudha Murty née Kulkarni

  • Born 19 August 1950, Shiggaon, Karnataka
  • Daughter of Dr. R. H. Kulkarni (surgeon) and Vimala Kulkarni
  • B.V.B. College of Engineering, Hubli (first female student)
  • M.E. Computer Science, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
  • First female engineer hired at TELCO/Tata Motors, Pune
  • Author of more than 30 books in Kannada, Marathi, Hindi, and English
  • Chair, Infosys Foundation
  • Padma Shri (2006); Padma Bhushan (2023)
  • Member of Rajya Sabha (nominated, March 2024)
  • Married Narayana Murthy on 10 February 1978

Children

  • Akshata Murty Sunak (b. 25 April 1980)
    • Claremont McKenna; Stanford GSB MBA
    • Founder, Akshata Designs; director, Catamaran Ventures UK
    • Married Rishi Sunak on 17 August 2009
    • Wife of the 74th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (25 October 2022 – 5 July 2024)
    • Two daughters: Krishna Sunak (b. 2011), Anoushka Sunak (b. 2013)
  • Rohan Murty (b. 1983)
    • Cornell University; PhD Computer Science, Harvard
    • Founder, Soroco (business-process automation)
    • Wife: Aparna Krishnan

The Infosys Story in One Paragraph

Narayana Murthy co-founded Infosys on 7 July 1981 in Pune along with Nandan Nilekani, N.S. Raghavan, Kris Gopalakrishnan, S.D. Shibulal, K. Dinesh, and Ashok Arora. With ₹10,000 of seed capital lent by Sudha out of her own savings, the seven founders built — over the next four decades — the company that, more than any other, defined the global Indian IT-services industry. Infosys went public in 1993; opened the doors to the Indian IT Boom of the 1990s and 2000s; was the first Indian company listed on the NASDAQ (1999); and is today, with nearly 350,000 employees worldwide, one of the largest IT-services companies on earth. Narayana Murthy retired as Chairman in 2011 but returned for a second stint in 2013–14 to stabilise the company; he remains Chairman Emeritus.

What the Murthy Family Story Teaches Us

The Murthy story is the modern Indian family story rewritten at the largest possible scale. A small-town schoolteacher father in Karnataka. A surgeon father in another small town. A daughter who became the first female engineering student at her college, and then the first female engineer at TELCO. A son who borrowed ₹10,000 from his wife and built a global company. A daughter-in-law who became First Lady of the United Kingdom. A son who earned a Harvard PhD. Two granddaughters growing up across India and Britain.

For every family — large or small, famous or otherwise — the Murthy story carries the same lesson. The schoolteacher great-grandfather matters. The first-female-engineer mother matters. The IIT classmates matter. The boy in California who became a son-in-law matters. The little girls in Yorkshire matter. Write them all down. The shape of a family across two generations is the shape of how lives expand into the world. Your tree is the record of that expansion.

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