N R Narayana Murthy is the legendary cofounder and retired chairman of Indian tech giant Infosys, in which he continues to hold a minority stake. Murthy stepped down as chairman in 2011 after 30 years with the company but returned in 2013 to hand over management to a professional CEO in 2014.
In 2017, Murthy was in the news for raising concerns over alleged corporate governance lapses at Infosys, which the company denied. The controversy led to the CEO’s resignation and a board shakeup, which saw the return of retired cofounder Nandan Nilekani as nonexecutive chairman.
In August 2021, his private investment firm Catamaran Ventures agreed to sell its stake in a joint venture with Amazon India.
N R Narayana Murthy Biography & Wiki
| N R Narayana Murthy Full Name | Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy |
| Profession | Entrepreneur |
| Physical Stat | |
| N R Narayana Murthy Height | In Centimeter- 163 cm In Meter- 1.63 m In Feet- 5’4” |
| Eye Color | Black |
| Hair Color | Salt & Pepper |
| Personal Life | |
| Date Of Birth | 20 August 1946 (Tuesday) |
| N R Narayana Murthy Age (2022) | 76 Years |
| Birthplace | Sidlaghatta in the Kingdom of Mysore in British India (present-day Chikkaballapura district, Karnataka, India) |
| Zodiac Sign/Sun Sign | Leo |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Home town | Sidlaghatta, Chikkaballapur District, Karnataka, India |
| School | Sharada Vilasa Boys High School, Mysore |
| College/University | University Of Mysore,Indian Institute Of technology, Kanpur |
| Educational Qualification | Bachelor Of Electrical Engineering M. Tech in Electrical Engineering |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Caste | Kannada Brahmin |
| Food Habit | Vegetarian |
| Family member(s) | |
| Marital Status | Married |
| N R Narayana Murthy Wife | Sudha Murthy |
| Marriage Date | 10 February 1978 (Friday) |
| Children | Son– Rohan Murthy (Founder of the Murty Classical Library of India) Daughter– Akshata Murthy (Venture Capitalist) Son-in-law– Rishi Sunak (British politician) |
| Parents | Father– N. Rama Rao (Teacher) Mother– Padavathamma Murthy |
| Sibling | He has Seven Siblings. |
| Favourite Things | |
| Hobbies | Reading Books and Listing To Old Hindi & Kannada Songs |
| Favourite Book | Winners Never Cheat Even in Difficult Times by Jon M HuntsmanWhat Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets by Michael J. SandelThe Republic by PlatoBlack Skin, White Masks by Franz. |
| Income | |
| N R Narayana Murthy Net Worth (2022) | ₹ 460 Crore INR |
| Source of Wealth | software services, Self Made |
Family, Early Life and Education
- N R Narayana Murthy was born on 20 August 1946, in Sidlaghatta, Karnataka, in a middle-class family.
- His uncle was a civil servant and Narayana’s father wanted him to follow the same route. But the young boy had other plans; he wanted to be an engineer as that was the “in” thing in India in those days.
- He appeared for the entrance test for the India Institute of Technology (IIT) after completing his schooling and cleared it with a high rank and a scholarship. However the scholarship was not enough to completely cover his educational expenses and his father could not afford to pay the fees.
- On his father’s advice he joined a local engineering college, the National Institute of Engineering and graduated in 1967 with a degree in Electrical Engineering.
- He then went to the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur and earned his master’s degree in 1969. While at the IIT he had a chance meeting with a famous computer scientist from the US and was thoroughly impressed by the scientist’s talks. This influenced Narayana to pursue a career in the IT sector in future.
- He was flooded with job offers on completion of his course as at that time there were just a few computer science graduates in India. He had job offers from HMT, Telco and Air India, all of them offering high salaries.
- However, he rejected all these offers to take up a job in India Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, when one of the IIM’s professors personally came to talk to the bright young man about an interesting job at the institute.
N R Narayana Murthy Personal Life
N R Narayana Murthy is married to Sudha Kulkarni and has two children with her, a son Rohan Murthy and a daughter Akshata Murthy. His wife is a published author in Kannada and English, and also a renowned social activist.
N R Narayana Murthy Career
- N R Narayana Murthy took up the position of a chief systems programmer at the IIM, Ahmedabad. There he worked on installing a time-sharing computer system—India’s first, making IIM the third business school in the world to install a time-sharing system after Harvard and Stanford.
- The work at the IIM was hectic but extremely fulfilling. He used to work 20 hours a day and learned a lot. Even today Murthy feels that joining the IIM was the best decision he had ever made in his professional life.
- He worked overseas in the 1970s, and the years he spent in Paris had a deep influence on him. Initially a staunch leftist who supported Communism, he eventually changed his views and concluded that compassionate capitalism and the large-scale creation of jobs was the only practical method of eradicating poverty.
- He learned a lot from the western countries, but ultimately wanted to settle in India and start a company in his homeland. He started a company called Softronics which failed after just a year and a half. So he joined Patni Computer Systems in Pune.
- Eventually he decided to become an entrepreneur again and teamed up with six other software professionals to found another company, “Infosys Consultants Pvt Ltd.” (now known as Infosys Ltd.) with a capital of Rs. 10,000 in Pune in 1981. The company’s The headquarters was shifted from Pune to Bangalore in 1983.
- N R Narayana Murthy became the CEO of Infosys and served in this position from 1981. In 2002, co-founder Nandan Nilekani succeeded him as the chairman.
- He became the Chairman of the Board in 2002 and the Chief Mentor in 2006. He retired from the company in August 2011, taking the title Chairman Emeritus.
- He has served as a director on the boards of DBS Bank, Unilever, and ICICI. He is a philanthropic and serves on the advisory boards and councils of several institutions like Cornell University, Ford Foundation, the UN Foundation and the Indo-British Partnership.
- The performance of Infosys suffered in his absence and thus he returned to the company as Executive Chairman and Additional Director in June 2013. He stepped down as the Executive Chairman in June 2014.
Major Works
- N R Narayana Murthy is best known as one of the co-founders of Infosys Ltd., one of India’s largest IT services company with offices all across the globe.
- Under his leadership Infosys became the first Indian company to be listed on the Nasdaq. It also became the first listed Indian company with revenue of $1 billion a year.
- A humble gesture by Narayana Murthy, the co-founder of software giant Infosys touching the feet of Ratan Tata feet has gone viral in the social media. The two tycoons from India’s business community were present in the TiE-Mumbai conclave. Ratan Tata was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 11th edition of TiECon Mumbai. Narayana Murthy touched the feet of Ratan Tata after giving him the Lifetime Achievement award.
Awards & Honors
- N R Narayana Murthy was honored with the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian award, for his distinguished contribution to industry in 2000.
- In 2008, the Government of India bestowed upon him the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award of India, for his exceptional services to Informational Technology in India.
- In 2013, he became the first recipient of the Sayaji Ratna Award (SRA Award) which was established to mark the 151st birth anniversary of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III, the erstwhile ruler of Baroda.