N R Narayana Murthy co-founded Infosys, India's best known global software consulting company, with six other engineers in 1981. The initial capital of $250 (Rs. 10,000) was mostly borrowed from their spouses.
He was appointed as executive chairman of Infosys on June 1, 2013. During his five year term, Mr Murthy would draw a token compensation of Rupee one per year, the company said in a statement.
Born in 1946, Mr Murthy studied engineering at Mysore and IIT Kanpur and served as Infosys chief executive from 1981 to 2002. He was the company's chairman from 2002 to 2011.
At Infosys, Mr Murthy articulated, designed and implemented the Global Delivery Model which has become the foundation for the huge success in IT services outsourcing from India.
He has led key corporate governance initiatives in India and is an IT advisor to several Asian countries.
Mr Murthy currently serves on the boards of Ford Foundation, Rhodes Trust, the Indian School of Business and the UN Foundation. He has earlier served on the board of global banking major HSBC and FMCG giant Unilever.
Mr Murthy was listed as one among the "12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time" by the Fortune magazine in 2012.
He has been awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India.
His wife, Sudha Murthy, is a social worker and author. His son Dr Rohan Murty, who has studied at Harvard, is all set to be appointed as his executive assistant at Infosys. Like his father, the junior Murthy will also be paid a token compensation of Rupee one per year.