My meeting with Mrs Sudha Murthy, Chairperson, Infosys Foundation

I met with Mrs Sudha Murthy in her office in Bannerghatta Road on March 6, 2009. It was a short meeting for 30 minutes (1030 AM to 11 AM). My colleague Dr Jyotsna Bapat also joined me in the meeting.

Like every other meetings, this meeting too left a lasting impression on me. Sudha mentioned to me about her initiative in USA.

Infosys Foundation gets about Rs 20 Crores ($ 4 Million) every year from Infosys (about 1% of their profit). The Foundation does a lot of work particularly in health care and education area among the rural students in the States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Orissa, Maharashtra and Punjab where Infosys has direct presence.

What was touching was Sudha’s decision to invest Rs 5 Crores ($ 1 Million) in USA in the year 2009; everyone knows the difficulty that the poor in America are facing, given the worst economic scene.

Only visionary leadership can think of such action plans. Of course India is far poor; but the poor in USA (though by Dollar terms they could be earning more than Indian counterparts) are suffering too. A million dollar may not be enough, but not an insignificant amount either; it can make a difference to dozens of families.

Such thoughtfulness is what makes Infosys family so special.

We at IIIT-B are fortunate to be closely associated with many people in the large Infosys family (100,000+ strong)

Tags: Infosys Foundation, investing $ 1 million in USA for poor, Sudha Murthy