New Delhi, India has probably seen its youngest millionaire in Ekagrah <keyword id="20076454" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="rohan-murty" source="keywords">Rohan Murty</keyword> - the four-month-old grandson of Infosys founder N.R. <keyword id="19920910" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="narayana-murthy" source="keywords">Narayana Murthy</keyword>. According to a regulatory filing, <keyword id="20482766" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="narayana" source="keywords">Narayana</keyword> Murthy has gifted shares worth more than Rs 240 crore to his grandson. <keyword id="21000975" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ekagrah-murty" source="keywords">Ekagrah Murty</keyword> received 15 lakh shares, or 0.04 per cent stake, in Infosys. The 77-year-old Infosys founder gifted shares to his grandson in an off-market transaction. With this, Narayana Murthy's holding in the IT bellwether fell to 0.36 per cent, or more than 1.51 crore shares. At the price of Rs 1,620 per share on Monday, Ekagrah Murty received a whopping Rs 243 crore. Narayana Murthy and his wife and now <keyword id="19967755" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="rajya-sabha-mp" source="keywords">Rajya Sabha MP</keyword> <keyword id="20077886" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sudha-murty" source="keywords">Sudha Murty</keyword> became grandparents in November last year after their son Rohan Murty and wife Aparna Krishnan welcomed a baby boy. Engineer-turned-philanthropist and author Sudha Murty took oath as Rajya Sabha MP last week in the presence of her husband.

Born with a golden spoon: 4-month-old old Ekagrah Murty now owns ₹240 crore Infosys stock

<ul><li><keyword id="1806167" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="murty" source="Orion">Murty</keyword> has a reported £<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-61055789">700</a> million pounds stake in her father’s company, Infosys. </li><li>She has a networth of around $1.3 billion, according to Bloomberg. </li><li>Apart from being a fashion designer, she is the director of Digme Fitness and owns shares in Wendy’s India and Jamie Oliver restaurants. </li><li>Murty was surrounded by controversies over evading tax on foreign income from India. </li></ul>Akshata Narayana Murty was born in 1980 to a young ambitious computer engineer and a computer scientist who were finding their foot in the yet-to-evolve software market of the country. While most of her young age was spent with her paternal grandparents, it did not stop her parents — N R <keyword id="6355623" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="narayana-murthy" source="Orion">Narayana Murthy</keyword> and Sudha Murthy – from drawing the line in terms of parenting her and her brother both. Hence, Akshata and Rohan were one of those rare 80-born children who lived without TV and spent their time in better pursuits like reading and spending time with real people instead of TV characters. Now, even as she holds the distinction of being UK’s first Indian first lady, billionaire Akshata Murty is known for much more than that. She is a fashion designer, venture capitalist and entrepreneur. The latest title however came with its own pressures. Murty, born in India and non-domiciled in the UK, came under the spotlight after her husband <keyword id="221875" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="rishi-sunak" source="Orion">Rishi Sunak</keyword>, now the PM of UK, began his campaign. Murty comes from a family of wealth and reportedly has a £<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-61055789">700</a> million pound stake in Infosys, a company her parents founded along with others. Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty’s combined net worth is £730 million, which is reportedly more than the head of the British monarchy <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/rishi-sunak-akshata-murtys-combined-fortune-is-2x-that-of-king-charles-iii/articleshow/95074007.cms">King Charles III</a>. Murty’s networth is $1.3 billion, according to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-30/rishi-sunak-s-wife-akshata-murty-builds-catamaran-ventures-ties-to-rich-families">Bloomberg</a>, largely due to a 0.91% stake in her father’s company Murty is one of Britain’s wealthiest businesswomen. They met at Stanford Born in Hubli in Karnataka, the daughter of N R Narayana Murthy, considered ‘father of the Indian IT sector’ and <keyword id="6355854" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="sudha-murty" source="Orion">Sudha Murty</keyword>, an acclaimed philanthropist and writer. Narayana Murthy is one of India’s wealthiest businessmen with a fortune of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._R._Narayana_Murthy#:~:text=As%20of%20October%202022%2C%20his,the%20world%20according%20to%20Forbes.&amp;text=Murthy%20was%20born%20and%20raised%20in%20Shidlaghatta%2C%20Karnataka.">$4.5 billion</a>. Sudha Murty is a Padma Shri awardee, considered India’s fourth highest civilian honour, and also heads Infosys’ non-profit arm Infosys Foundation. Akshata Murty attended high school in Bangalore and studied at Fashion Institute of Design &amp; Merchandising, Los Angeles. She also has a Masters degree in business administration from Stanford University. This is where she met Sunak and got married to him in Bangalore in 2009. The couple have two daughters Anoushka and Krishna. “When I met him we were 24 year old business school students, living in another country, and had no idea of where life would take us,” she tweeted in<a href="https://twitter.com/anmurty/status/1512711676709191680?t=Fbkv_a5GZg-EgAEhOtFDNQ&amp;s=08"> April</a>. ‘India remains the country of my birth, but I love UK too’ The shadow of her father’s company Infosys became heavier on her when it was reported earlier this year that the Indian IT company was still operating in Russia during the Ukraine war, despite counter claims by the company. Akshata Murty denied having any stake in the operations of the company, clarifying her position with Sky <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/rishi-sunak-calls-for-explanation-over-chancellors-wife-stake-in-company-operating-in-russia-12604359">News</a>. Another controversy which clouded the Sunak campaign was her status as a non-domiciled resident in the UK, which BBC reported gave her a way to evade £2.2 million in UK <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-61055789">taxes</a>. A non-domiciled is a resident citizen who has her permanent home in another country, in this case, India. “My decision to pay UK tax on all my worldwide income will not change the fact that India remains the country of my birth, citizenship, parents’ home and place of domicile. But I love the UK too,” Murty tweeted in <a href="https://twitter.com/anmurty/status/1512711676709191680?t=Fbkv_a5GZg-EgAEhOtFDNQ&amp;s=08">April</a>. As the law states, Murty as a non-domiciled citizen in the UK is not required to pay taxes on her overseas earnings, which came to £11.6 million she got as a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-61055789">dividend</a> from her father’s company last year. Post an inquiry, Akshata agreed to pay her due taxes. She additionally pays £30,000 per year to maintain her non-domiciled <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-61045825">status</a>, BBC reported. “It has become clear that many do not feel it is compatible with my husband's role as chancellor. I understand and appreciate the British sense of fairness and I do not wish my tax status to be a distraction for my husband or to affect my family,” she <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-61045825">said.</a> Murty had previously started her own design label called Akshata Designs, which closed down in 2012. The next year, she became director of the family-owned venture capital firm called <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-30/rishi-sunak-s-wife-akshata-murty-builds-catamaran-ventures-ties-to-rich-families">Catamaran Ventures</a>, which invested in British luxury furniture The New Craftsmen and Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technology Corporation. She is also director at London-based Digme Fitness which is currently valued at £<a href="https://pomanda.com/company/09631514/digme-fitness-limited#:~:text=digme%20fitness%20limited%20Estimated%20Valuation&amp;text=Pomanda%20estimates%20the%20enterprise%20value,multiple%20(adjusted%20for%20liquidity).">7.2 million</a>. Murty also owns shares in two of famed British cook and entrepreneur Jamie Oliver restaurants, Wendy’s in India and in fitness brand Digme Fitness, according to <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/akshata-murty-billionaire-wife-of-rishi-sunak-runs-these-businesses/articleshow/95075345.cms?from=mdr">Economic Times</a>. Murty also heads the London branch of IT company <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akshata_Murty#cite_note-15">Soroco</a>, co-founded with her brother <keyword id="80837" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="rohan-murthy" source="Orion">Rohan Murthy</keyword> in 2014. ‘I know how <keyword id="4793" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="will-smith" source="Orion">Will Smith</keyword> felt at the Oscars’ Rishi, in a BBC news <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-60941902">podcast</a>, defending the smear campaign against his family, especially his wife, said, “I think it's totally fine for people to take shots at me. It's fair game. I'm the one sitting here and that's what I signed up for.” “But I feel, on reflection, both Will Smith and me having our wives attacked - at least I didn't get up and slap anybody, which is good”, he <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-60941902">added</a>. Rishi Sunak, until recently was the chancellor to the exchequer, residing in 11 Downing Street. He resigned in July and the family shifted to a house in West London. The<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akshata_Murty#cite_note-15"> couple</a> reportedly also own a manor house in <keyword id="15351944" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="kirby-sigston" source="Orion">Kirby Sigston</keyword>, a mews house in Central London, a penthouse apartment in Santa Monica and a flat on Old Brompton Road. They would soon be moving to 10 Downing Street. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/rishi-sunak-akshata-murtys-combined-fortune-is-2x-that-of-king-charles-iii/articleshow/95074007.cms">Rishi Sunak, Akshata Murty's combined fortune is 2x that of King Charles III</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/row-over-bravermans-reappointment-as-uk-home-secy/articleshow/95094758.cms">Row over Braverman's reappointment as UK Home Secy</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/rishi-sunaks-wife-akshata-murty-earned-15-3-mn-dividend-income-from-infosys-in-2022/articleshow/95076869.cms">Rishi Sunak's wife Akshata Murty earned $15.3 mn dividend income from Infosys in 2022</a>

Meet the first Indian first lady of UK - Akshata Murty

<keyword id="221874" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="akshata" source="Orion">Akshata</keyword> <keyword id="1806167" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="murty" source="Orion">Murty</keyword>, Britain's incoming Prime Minister <keyword id="221875" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="rishi-sunak" source="Orion">Rishi Sunak</keyword>'s wife whose tax status on income from outside the UK had triggered a controversy, earned Rs 126.61 crore (USD 15.3 million) in dividend income in 2022 from her shareholding in India's second-largest IT firm <keyword id="6354512" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="infosys" source="Orion">Infosys</keyword>. Murthy, daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, held 3.89 crore shares, or 0.93 per cent, of Infosys at the end of September, according to company filings with the stock exchanges. Her holding is worth Rs 5,956 crore (about USD 721 million) at Tuesday's trading price of Rs 1,527.40 on the BSE. Infosys paid Rs 16 per share final dividend for the 2021-22 fiscal on May 31, this year. For the current year, the firm this month announced an interim dividend of Rs 16.5, according to the company's stock exchange filings. The two dividends totalled Rs 32.5 per share or Rs 126.61 crore for Akshata. Infosys is among the best dividend-paying companies in India. In 2021, it paid a total of Rs 30 per share dividend, which would have given Akshata a total of Rs 119.5 crore in that calendar year. Sunak, 42, on Sunday won the race to lead the Conservative Party and is now set to become Britain's first prime minister of Indian origin and its youngest leader in modern times. While Sunak is a British national, his wife Akshata is an Indian citizen. Her non-domiciled status, which allows her to earn money abroad without paying taxes in Britain for a period of up to 15 years, has been a divisive issue in the UK. Non-domiciled status of Akshata became an issue of discussion in Britain when Sunak first entered the race to become the prime minister in April this year. At that time, her spokesperson had stated that as a citizen of India, she was unable to hold citizenship of another country and that "she has always and will continue to pay UK taxes on all her UK income." As the controversy snowballed, she at that time announced that she would pay UK tax on all of her worldwide earnings out of a "British sense of fairness".It is not known how much taxes she paid in the UK on the dividend income that accrued to her after April - Rs 16 per share final dividend for the 2021-22 fiscal year (April 2021 to March 2022) paid on May 31, 2022, and Rs 16.5 a share interim dividend for 2022-23 fiscal that is due to be paid on October 27. Born in her mother Sudha Murthy's hometown of Hubballi in northern Karnataka, Akshata did her schooling in Bengaluru, before moving to Claremont McKenna College in California, where she graduated with a dual major in economics and French. She did a fashion designing diploma from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, which followed a short work stint at Deloitte and <keyword id="45009" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="unilever" source="Orion">Unilever</keyword>. She thereafter went on to pursue her MBA at Stanford where she met Rishi Sunak. The two married in 2009. The couple, who own a vast real estate portfolio, has two children, Krishna and Anoushka. They live in a 7 million townhouse in Kensington. They also own a flat in Kensington, a mansion in Rishi's Yorkshire constituency and a penthouse in California. The son of a pharmacist mother and doctor father, Sunak was educated at one of England's most renowned schools, Winchester, and then Oxford. He spent three years at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and later gained an MBA from Stanford in California, where he met his wife Akshata Murthy. According to Infosys filings, the promoters hold 13.11 per cent of the company. Of this, the Murty family owns 3.6 per cent (Narayana Murthy holds 0.40 per cent stake, his wife Sudha 0.82 per cent, son Rohan 1.45 per cent and daughter Akshata 0.93 per cent). Other promoters include co-founder S Gopalakrishnan, Nandan M Nilekani and S D Shibulal and their families. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/rishi-sunak-akshata-murtys-combined-fortune-is-2x-that-of-king-charles-iii/articleshow/95074007.cms">Rishi Sunak, Akshata Murty's combined fortune is 2x that of King Charles III</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/news/rishi-sunak-is-the-first-indian-origin-british-pm-know-more-about-one-of-uks-richest-premiers/slidelist/95077247.cms">Rishi Sunak is the first Indian-origin British PM – Know more about one of UK’s richest premiers</a>

Rishi Sunak's wife Akshata Murty earned $15.3 mn dividend income from Infosys in 2022

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/49428676.cms" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /> 
 <keyword id="155327" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Rohan-Murty">Rohan Murty</keyword>, son of <keyword id="6354512" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Infosys">Infosys</keyword> founder NR Narayana Murthy is backing an unique robotic astronomy project which can robotically help execute complex astronomical tasks. He and his family are providing $1 million to help run and operate the robotic system. 
 The project which was previously housed at the California Insititure of Tevhnology (<keyword id="140396" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Caltech">Caltech</keyword>) is now being moved to the Kitt Peak National Obsevatory in Arizona, where it’s intended to help a 2.1-meter telescope make new discoveries. 
 The <keyword id="3103347" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Robo-AO-project">Robo-AO project</keyword> is made up of a system which allows it to erase a typical blurring effect created by the atmosphere, enabling space observers to view the solar system more clearly and is thus being billed as the ‘world’s only robotic laser adaptive optics system’ 
 
This project was co-developed by the the Caltech Optical Observatories and the the Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune, about three years ago. 
 
"Automating the discovery of the universe impacts one of mankind's oldest activities: to look up at the heavens and wonder about our place in the universe," Murty told ET 
 
"This activity has been the source of inspiration for religion, poetry, literature, science, and culture in general. Hence, I am pleased to support a dedicated telescopic facility for Robo-AO, which will serve as a new frontier for what computer science can do for astronomy and for mankind, in general,” he added. 
 
Image credit: Indiatimes

NR Narayana Murthy's son Rohan Murty puts $1 million in astronomy project

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/47038985.cms" />Just like Harry Potter and his friends went to Hogwarts to learn their wizardry, junior <keyword id="46431" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="India-Inc">India Inc</keyword> is heading to <keyword id="70846" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Harvard-Business-School">Harvard Business School</keyword> by the hordes, to learn the 'tricks' of the trade that will eventually help them help their illustrious parents in their multimillion dollar business ventures. And even as <keyword id="2601661" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="JAY-KOTAK">Jay Kotak</keyword>, the elder son of <keyword id="45051" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Uday-Kotak">Uday Kotak</keyword>, senior vice chairman and managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, prepares to attend the coveted business school, he will be joining many amongst India Inc's 'future'. BI India lists down five such second generation leaders who learned to swish their magic wands at Hogwarts..err.. <keyword id="53675" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="harvard">Harvard</keyword>. 
 
Rishad Premji 
Rishad Premji, the current chief strategy officer and the head of Investor Relations &amp; Corporate Affairs, joined Wipro in 2007 as a manager in the financial division of the company. Armed with a MBA degree and BA degree in Economics from Wesleyan University, the junior Premji and is all set to join the board of the company from May 1. 
 
<keyword id="155327" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Rohan-Murty">Rohan Murty</keyword> Rohan Murty, son of Infosys founder <keyword id="745832" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Narayanan-Murthy">Narayanan Murthy</keyword>, created a quite a stir when he joined the company in 2013. He joined the company as executive assistant to the Murthy. He pursued his PhD in Computer Science from Harvard Business School and is also a junior fellow in the Society of Fellows at the university. 
 
Aditi Kothari 
Daughter of investment banking veteran Hemendra Kothari, Aditi joined the group after completing her post graduation in business administration from Harvard. She is an Economics graduate from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, she is the head of Marketing at DSP BlackRock Investment Managers. 
 
Tanya Dubash Tanya Dubash, the eldest daughter of Adi <keyword id="6369697" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Godrej">Godrej</keyword>, is currently the executive director and chief brand officer at Godrej Group. She is responsible for spearheading the conglomerate’s marketing functions. Dubash has an AB degree with Economics and Political Science from Brown University and pursued Advanced Management Programme from Harvard. 
 
Nisaba Godrej 
The younger daughter of Adi Godrej, Nisaba, popularly known as Nisa, serves as the head for innovation strategy at the Godrej Group. She went to Harvard to study MBA and if reports are to be believed, she was fixated on India. Once back, she joined Godrej Agrovet and turned the tables for the company.

5 India Inc scions who went to Harvard to learn the 'tricks'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Excessive use of the Alt-Tab toggle could be contributing to a feeling of burnout, a study suggests.</li><li>Harvard Business Review research finds employees spend 5 working weeks a year toggling between apps.</li></ul>There are plenty of reasons for feeling burnt out at work right now, from longer hours to understaffing and side hustles. But there might be one you haven't thought of: the Alt-Tab toggle. A <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/08/how-much-time-and-energy-do-we-waste-toggling-between-applications">study</a> published in August by the Harvard Business Review <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-18/tech-fatigue-has-employees-zooming-in-and-zoning-out">reported by Bloomberg</a> found workers were toggling between different apps and websites up to 1,200 times a day. This meant employees spend just under four hours a week reorienting themselves after toggling to a new application. "Over the course of a year, that adds up to five working weeks, or 9% of their annual time at work," the study said.That "toggling tax," another study suggests, might be helping make employees decide to quit. Okta, an identity and access management company, told Bloomberg its clients deployed 89 apps last year, up from 58 in 2015. Large companies now deal with an average of 187 apps. A <a href="https://www.walkme.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/WalkMe-state-of-digital-adoption-2022.pdf">survey by WalkMe</a> found nearly 30% of these apps are duplicative or add no value.But the biggest issue might be the toggling tax's contribution to employee burnout. WalkMe's big companies found an average of 76 employees at big firms left in the past year due to "technology frustrations."The figure speaks to growing digitization in the corporate world, but not always for the better.The switch to home working triggered by the pandemic supercharged the Software as a Service (Saas) market, with investors putting a record $90 billion into promising startups, <a href="https://www.opexengine.com/2022-year-of-big-capital-for-saas/#:~:text=In%20the%20US%20alone%2C%20VC,according%20to%20Silicon%20Valley%20Bank.">per OPEXEngine</a>. Companies flocked to communication apps like Slack, Zoom, Monday, and Microsoft Teams. But for some, Rohan Narayana Murty, founder and chief technology officer at machine learning company Soroco and co-author of the Harvard Business Review study, told Bloomberg the value of different apps might be outweighed by the admin of using them. "How we work is itself a distraction. All day long, we just repeatedly switch between disparate applications," Murty said.Indeed, Tori Paulman, senior director analyst at Gartner's employee experience technology group, told Bloomberg an HR manager asked her if there was an app to address the fatigue their employees were feeling from operating all these apps."Technology has gone from the great enabler to the great inhibitor," she said.

Feeling burnt out? The stress of toggling between apps with the Alt-Tab buttons may be to blame, study suggests

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/34071511.cms" />Her paternal grandmother, Kokilaben, stood by husband Dhirubhai but never joined him as he redefined the boundaries of Indian entrepreneurship. Her father’s sisters, or her aunts, were married early into business houses, with little discussion about joining the business: Dipti into the Salgaocar family and Nina into the Kothari family. Her mother, Nita, broke the mould somewhat and has done a fair bit on the business end of the group. But Isha Ambani, 22, is poised to redraw the family-business construct for Reliance women scions. 
 
Last week, ET reported the only daughter of Reliance Industries owner Mukesh Ambani had joined global consultancy McKinsey in the US. Isha, a Yale graduate in psychology and South Asian studies, had joined her father at the Reliance annual general meeting in Mumbai last year. While the company declined comment, corporate observers say the McKinsey stint is probably a stepping stone to larger things in the family business empire. 
 Across India Inc, more and more women scions can be seen at the frontline of their family business. There are some who have made a mark: like Nisa <keyword id="6369697" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Godrej">Godrej</keyword> and Tanya Dubash at the Godrej Group. There are some who are asserting themselves: like Radhika Piramal, the 34-year-old, Harvard-educated managing director of VIP Industries. 
 
And there’s a new lot stepping in: like 30-year-old Gursimran Mann, managing director of Simbhaoli Sugars, and the first woman in four generations of the family to play a hands-on role in its business. According to business historian Gita Piramal, who is also the mother of Radhika Piramal, 20 years ago, she predicted it would take two generations before Indian women in the family business became the done thing. “I find it has taken one generation to do so,” she says. 
 
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	&#xa0;</div>
 
 
Three Pivots Of Change 
 
“It is a belated effect of what is happening in society,” says Ashvini Chopra, MD &amp; CEO of Universal Trustees, a firm that helps business families in succession planning. When it comes to women in business, this change pivots around three aspects. 
 
The first is education. “Parents who would typically give professional education, including overseas exposure, only to their sons are now also encouraging daughters,” says Prabir Jha, chief HR officer, Reliance Group, speaking in general and not in reference to the Ambani family. “Their entry into business responsibilities is then a logical corollary.” 
 
Secondly, family size is shrinking. Joint families are becoming nuclear, resulting in a fall in the number of male heirs. “In many families it’s a father and son and daughter like situation. And daughters are the heir apparent,” says Kavil Ramachandran, Thomas Schmidheiny Chair professor of family business and wealth management at Indian School of Business. “Also many families are realising that girls are as good as, or better than, boys in performance.” 
 
For some like Sulajja Firodia Motwani, vice-chairperson of Kinetic Engineering, all this was a given. “A combination of a good atmosphere at home, freedom to do what we wanted and treating daughters like sons encouraged me to get into the family business,” she says. While she feels this is how it should be, Piramal says it’s still not the case in all families and inequalities manifest themselves in many forms. “We are only half way there,” she says. “There are several prominent business families where daughters are not at the forefront of handling businesses in terms of true equality.” 
 
That leads to the third pivot of change: an amendment in the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, in 2005, which removed gender discrimination in inheritance in Hindu joint families. Previously, only the male line, down to the great-grandson, had inheritance rights. The amendment gives women an equal share in the family business. “Even women married before 1994 can come back and claim equal rights into the family business as well as inherited assets,” says Sameer Tapia, senior partner at ALMT Legal. 
 

	But the exciting, radical change is happening in operations, and Tapia offers some sense of its magnitude. “We have at least 40 per cent family-business clients where women are playing an active role in the family business, and are part of crucial strategy or execution teams.” And many, like the four women profiled here, are leaving an imprint. 
	 

	 
	 
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Through the Ranks 
 
Unlike many, if not most, women scions in India, Lakshmi Venu had a point of reference on the gender question. Her mother, Mallika Srinivasan, is the chairperson and chief executive of tractor company Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited. But Lakshmi, 31, gravitated towards the businesses managed by her father, Venu Srinivasan—auto-component company Sundaram-Clayton and two-wheeler firm TVS Motor. In 2010, Lakshmi was inducted as director-strategy and whole-time director of Sundaram-Clayton. In May 2011, she was also made vice-president in charge of global business strategy at Sundaram-Clayton. 
 
It capped close to a decade of her involvement with the family business. Back in 2003, Lakshmi joined as a management trainee in Sundaram Auto Components. She also did stints in business strategy, design, corporate affairs, and sales and marketing at TVS Motor. Lakshmi declined comment for this profile. 
 
But senior auto industry professional RL Ravichandran, who has worked in a senior position in TVS Motors, says Lakshmi was interested in the business from early on. Even with her impeccable academic qualifications, he adds, she earned her way through various roles. “(It’s why)…there was no resistance from employees when she was inducted on to the board.” 
 
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior TVS manager who interacts with Lakshmi describes her as “level-headed” and “business-like”. She currently manages the entire component business, which includes die cast, rubber, plastics and seats. “She is handling the business well and it is showing results,” he adds. Unlike Lakshmi, brother Sudarshan Venu, 24, had an easier entry into Sundaram-Clayton, joining its board in 2011. 
 
According to VG Ramakrishnan, managing director of Frost &amp; Sullivan, a consultancy, it’s a good sign when scions spend time in the business rather than being parachuted into it. “Children are being groomed to take over executive roles and responsibilities right from the beginning as part of effective succession planning,” he says. “It shows the progressive nature of these companies.” 
 
 In 2011, Lakshmi married Rohan Murty, son of <keyword id="6354512" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Infosys">Infosys</keyword> co-founder Narayana Murthy. Her lineage aside, she is seen as a leader in her own right. Anil Singhvi, founder and director of Institutional Investor Advisory Services, a proxy shareholder advisory firm, has been baying against the tendency of business families to induct women scions into the board simply to meet the new rule of minimum women representation. But for Lakshmi, he says: “She is competent to take the business forward.” 
	 

	 
	 
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When a 21-year-old Bhairavi Jani returned from the US in 2000, after a year of working as a supply-chain consultant in KPMG’s Washington DC office, she battled two stereotypes as she tried to make her mark in the male-dominated Indian logistics business industry: gender and age. “There were people who did not want to work with me, who thought I was probably amusing myself for a few years before being married off,” she says. “And then there were customers, even MNCs, who refused to give business to a young woman, who they were sure would fail miserably at logistics planning.” 
 
Her father had thrown her into the deep end, and told Jani to learn to swim. Instead of making her a part of Blue Dart, his flagship before he sold it to DHL in 2004, Tushar Jani stumped his elder daughter by asking her to set up her own venture. “His view was that people from family-owned businesses tend to take things for granted,” says Jani, now 34. “Going through the pain of setting up a venture would teach me two things: never be afraid to take risks and value what it takes to sustain a business.” 
 So, Jani set up i3pl, to provide end-to-end logistics services to corporate clients. After initially struggling for business, i3pl obtained its first client in M&amp;M, and subsequently signed up British Petroleum, Sara Lee and <keyword id="60299" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Walt-Disney">Walt Disney</keyword>, among others. Jani roped in partners in 2003 and, in a planned exit, sold out to them in 2005. 
 
That same year, Jani assumed the role of group director for the SCA Group, which has four verticals: warehousing, supply chain technology, cargo handling and freight forwarding, and shipping, respectively. At present, she provides strategic and operational guidance, operating as a link between the board and professionals; she also directs new projects and is in charge of joint ventures and alliances. 
 
Jani set up the warehousing vertical, via a company called Transmart India, in 2007. Percy Dhunjisha, a former CFO of Blue Dart Express and a person who had worked closely with her father, was her mentor there. He describes her as a searching and questioning manager. “Bhairavi’s management style is, forethought is better than afterthought,” he says. “She does not accept things as they are presented, but will often probe enough with questions to determine whether there is an alternate way of doing things and whether the same has been considered before arriving at the solution presented.” 
 
At SCA, she has her father’s backing. “Daughters are as astute and sharp in financial management, balance sheet and P&amp;L [profit and loss] accounting, says Tushar Jani. “I have always believed in that. Therefore, Bhairavi has always been given full charge of our projects and companies, including P&amp;L responsibility. And like any CEO, she has been answerable to the board.” 
 

	Gender and age still come up in conversations, though. Even today, there are few women in the logistics industry, and Jani still has to face issues of equality with male colleagues and work-life balance. “But I am confident that women in leadership roles in business will pick up sharply,” she concludes. 
	 

	 
	 
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Set up in 1933, Simbhaoli Sugars has seen four generations of the Mann family nurture it. But in that journey, women from the family, though present as shareholders and promoter-directors, were conspicuously absent on the frontline. Gursimran Mann, belonging to the fourth generation, changed that. 
 In 2005, just 21 and out of college, she joined Simbhaoli— a business with inert appeal to the young and a workforce in which women made up less than 1%. In doing so, she was turning her back on options available to her like consulting and investment banking. She even considered joining a consumer products or an agri-trading company, having done internships with Nestle, <keyword id="76102" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Cargill">Cargill</keyword> and ED&amp;F Man. 
 
“It was my decision,” says Mann. She grew up in the Simbhaoli factory compound, in rural Uttar Pradesh, listening to conversations about the business and watching sugar being made. “This background, combined with my training in economics, made me realise the opportunity that existed for me to help grow the business further.” The only child, she did not immediately start reporting to her father and chairman Gurmit Mann. Joining as a trainee, Mann worked in various departments—factory, farm operations and trading —reporting to different people. 
 
“My promotions were not on auto mode,” she says. After completing her MBA from London Business School, Mann became an executive director in 2012 and managing director in July 2013. At Simbhaoli, she counts among her achievements increasing asset utilisation, partnering with global sugar trading company ED&amp;F Man, setting up sugar refinery on the Gujarat coast to tap the import-export play, reducing the cyclical nature of the sugar business by pushing the power and the alcohol business, building a consulting vertical that advises other companies on all things sugar, and raising new capital from private equity. “She has taken the challenge to professionalise the business,” says Devin Narang, India MD of Singapore-based PE fund Sindicatum, which has invested in the company. 
 

	For Mann, it’s all in a day’s work. “There is an overall social and cultural change, leading to a change in mindset among business families regarding acceptance of daughters to take charge,” she says. 
	 

	 
	 
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The middle of three daughters, Arathi Krishna was the first women in her family to join the business, in 1989, when she was just 20. “I had an easy transition into the company,” says Krishna, now joint managing director of auto-component major Sundram Fasteners. “I was easily accepted by employees.” Acceptance from the industry has followed. The 45-year-old spearheads the Rs 2,651 crore company’s domestic business. 
 “This is a logical succession,” says Sonu Iyer, partner &amp; diversity and inclusiveness leader, <keyword id="151258" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Ernst-Young-India">Ernst &amp; Young India</keyword>, a consultancy. “The daughters [younger sister Arundathi is in charge of overseas operations and business development] have grown up in an entrepreneurial set up, and it’s only natural for them to be entrepreneurs and also do it better.” 
 
According to Arathi, her parents gave her an environment to flourish and the freedom to choose. “There was no difference between a son or a daughter,” she says. “My parents are very progressive, willing to take risks and pushed us to pursue our interests. But they never pushed us into the business.” Arathi did an MBA from the US. She stayed on, first to work in automotive strategy with a consulting company and then with Sundram Fasteners for five years. “I knew I would, at some point, come back and join the business,” she says. 
 
“So, I took up jobs in the US that were related to the business. I wanted to make myself worthy when I came back to join the business.” Arathi returned to India in 2006, and became joint MD in 2011. Arathi counts among her achievements making the workforce at Sundram Fastners younger, and the work culture more performance-based and technology oriented. Around 2005, the average age of the Sundram workforce was 40 years; it’s now down to 35 years. 
 
In her earlier years, at industry meets, Arathi would feel out of sorts in what was essentially a man’s world. “But then, I felt it was tougher to work in a Japanese or a Korean company,” she says. At present, 10% of Sundram’s workforce is made of women. “We have always believed in equality at the workplace. We are promoting more women to join the manufacturing ranks in the company.”

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