Narayana Murthy's Gift For 4-Month-Old Grandchild - Rs 240 Crore Shares

Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy has made headlines once again, and not for his 70 hours a week mantra this time. Mr Murthy has gifted shares worth over Rs 240 crore to his four-month-old grandson, Ekagrah Rohan Murty, who joins the list of millionaires in India.

An exchange filing reveals that Ekagrah owns 15,00,000 shares of Infosys, amounting to a 0.04 percent stake in the company. The transaction was conducted "off-market", the filing revealed.

Mr Murthy's holding in the tech company has dropped from 0.40 per cent to 0.36 percent to 1.51 crore shares. 

Ekagrah was born in November 2023 to Rohan Murthy and Aparna Krishnan. He is the third grandchild of Narayan and Sudha Murty, who are also grandparents to two daughters of Akshata Murty and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Ekagrah's name was reportedly inspired by Arjun's character in the Mahabharata. The Sanskrit word 'Ekagrah' means unwavering focus and determination.

Infosys, which started with a modest investment of Rs 10,000 in 1981, has since grown into India's 2nd biggest tech company.

Sudha Murty, a prolific author and philanthropist, played a pivotal role in the early days of Infosys, bootstrapping the company with her meager savings. After dedicating over 25 years to leading the Infosys Foundation, she retired from her role in December 2021, continuing her charitable endeavors through her family's foundation. Recently, she became a member of Rajya Sabha.

Last year, Mr Murthy had stirred a fierce debate after he urged young people to work 70 hours a week.  Making the remarks during a podcast, he said the country's educated population owes it to the less fortunate to work "extremely hard".

Many agreed with Mr Murthy's views, but several others criticised  the views, question whether it would lead to burnout. Reacting to backlash, Mr Murthy defended his statement and said a lot of "good people" and "NRIs" agreed with his statement.