The daughter of novelist Sudha Murty and Infosys co-founder Narayan Murthy, Akshata Murty is renowned for being less extroverted than her husband, Rishi Sunak. However, as the first Indian First Lady of the UK’s first British Indian Prime Minister, this will likely alter significantly.
When they were both students at Stanford University in the US, the 42-year-old fashion designer and venture capitalist who serves as Director of Catamaran Ventures UK first met Sunak.
The next prime minister, born in Southampton, has explained how he changed his class schedule to be nearer to her, and the rest, as they say, is history. The couple wed over two days in Bangalore in 2006, and they have two kids who are now enrolled in school, Krishna and Anoushka.
When her tax issues made news earlier this year, Murty posted on social media, “Rishi has always recognized the fact that I am Indian and as proud of my country as he is of his.”
“Despite how such a shift might have eased things for him politically, he’s never asked me to forsake my Indian citizenship, links to India, or my business concerns,” she claimed.
To prevent it from becoming a “distraction” for her husband’s political career, she gave up her legal, non-domiciled status. As a result, she now pays taxes on all of her Indian income from Infosys shares in the UK. When her non-dom status was the subject of a media frenzy, she retaliated against suggestions that it was in some way indicative of her stronger bond with India than the UK.
“India continues to be the nation where I was born, where I received my citizenship, where my parents currently reside, and where I will be paying all of my international income in taxes, notwithstanding my choosing to do so. But I also adore the UK,” she said.
“During my stay here, I’ve invested in British companies and given to British charities. My daughters are from the UK. In the UK, they are growing up. I’m so happy to be here, she continued.
Murty’s organization is a consumer tech-focused investor to fund rapidly expanding British brands that need strategic finance.
“Women’s skill sets are more diverse, or perhaps society encourages women to use their skill sets in broader contexts, whether through a career in the culinary arts or the arts,” she reflected during an online event for International Women’s Day last year.
She added that women are now learning to use their talents, interests, and passions to fit into what may be conventionally described as a success.
She said, “What was intriguing was this entire conversation about how women had to handle work-life balance, especially in the corporate sector. I took a class on work-life balance at Stanford University.
I never felt it was simply a woman’s responsibility to achieve this work-life balance because I came up in a household of powerful women, so I was a little perplexed by this. The family’s responsibility was to maintain this equilibrium. In a recent interview, her husband said that they had a great marriage because they were significantly different individuals. However, he identified himself as “very messy,” but also the more spontaneous one.
Following a scandal over Murty’s tax troubles, the Sunak family left the apartment above No. 10 Downing Street, the official house of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in April. While Krishna, their oldest daughter, was in her final term of primary school and wanted to walk to school every day, Sunak argued that it had nothing to do with what had transpired at the time.
The Kensington property in London, the North Yorkshire constituency home, and the Downing Street and Chequers grace and favor residences are now where the family is expected to split their time.
