“Net-net, a huge benefit” is how Rishi Sunak, the UK's new Prime Minister, described having Indian tech pioneer NR Narayana Murthy as his father-in-law. But he did add, in the 2015 interview with NDTV, that it's “obviously very intimidating at the same time”.
The interview was done just after he first became an MP of the Conservative Party, seven years before he became the UK's first Indian-origin, first non-white PM; also its youngest in 200 years.
“He gives great advice,” he said about Mr Murthy, whose daughter Akshata, a fashion designer and businesswoman, he met in college in the US. They got married in 2009.
“My favourite quote of his is: In god we trust, but everyone else needs to bring data to the table,” said the former financial analyst about his father-in-law. The quote is originally attributed to American mathematician William Edwards Deming.
NR Narayana Murthy founded Infosys in 1981.
About coffee-table discussions with the Infosys founder, Mr Sunak, then just shy of 35, said to the interviewer, “You are more used to hearing it than I am. He is a well-respected man in India… He always tells me to live with integrity and do the right thing.”
He also noted that Mr Murthy was in his constituency, Richmond, to support him. “I feel very fortunate to have someone like him as family.”
After Rishi Sunak became PM earlier this week — third this year for the UK as the government struggles to control price-rise — Narayana Murthy said, "We are confident he will do his best for the people of the United Kingdom."
Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty with their daughters at a campaign event earlier this year.
With wife Akshata Murty, Rishi Sunak has a combined fortune of £730 million — roughly twice the estimated net worth of King Charles and Camilla, Queen Consort — which makes him one of the richest people to have been the country's PM.
An estimate earlier this year said Akshata Murty alone was richer than Queen Elizabeth II, whose personal wealth was about £350 million.
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