Sunak’s motherin-law appointed to serve in India’s parliament

Bilal Kuchay in New Delhi

RISHI SUNAK’S mother-in-law has been appointed to serve in India’s parliament, with Narendra Modi, the prime minister, saying he was “delighted” by the nomination.

Sudha Murty, 73, is the founder and former chair of the Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic wing of the global tech giant co-founded by her husband, N.R. Narayana Murthy, in 1981. The couple’s daughter, Akshata, married Mr Sunak in 2009.

Mr Modi hailed Ms Murty’s “contributions to diverse fields including social work, philanthropy and education have been immense and inspiring” after she was nominated to the upper house of India’s parliament on Friday.

Ms Murty, whose appointment takes immediate effect, said her nomination was a “privilege and honour”.

“I am very grateful for the opportunity to serve our nation,” she wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“The nomination has come as a pleasant surprise, and I am doubly thrilled to be presented this honour on Womens’ Day,” Ms Murthy told

“The announcement has come out of the blue. So, I am yet to chalk up my plans for my parliamentary tenure. I am in Thailand to deliver a series of lectures. Once I return home, I will see what best I can do to utilise this platform to work for the people of India,” she said.

Most members of India’s upper house are elected but 12 of them – usually high achievers in public life – are nominated to the chamber by the president for a six-year term.

An engineer by training, Ms Murty is also a best-selling author and her foundation is credited with establishing libraries in rural areas, building thousands of homes in areas affected by flooding, and funding the construction of public toilets.

She is also known as a motivational speaker, speaking in both Kannada, a language spoken predominantly in Karnataka, and English.

Born in Shiggaon, in the south-west state of Karnataka, Ms Murty was the first female engineer hired by TATA. She got her job there after sending a letter to the company’s chairman complaining of a “men only” gender bias.

It was while working for TATA in Pune that she married her husband, who according to Forbes now has an estimated net worth of $4.7 billion.

In the past he has said he needed to borrow money from his wife to start his firm, now India’s seventh-largest by market cap and the first Indian company to be listed on the New York stock exchange.

It is not the first time Ms Murty has been acknowledged for her philanthropic work.

In 2023, the government awarded her the Padma Bhushan – India’s third highest civilian honour, for her career in social work. She had already been given the Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award, in 2006.

Modi says he is ‘delighted’ with the nomination of Sudha Murty, founder of the Infosys Foundation