IT's not my life

When their fathers converted a paltry capital of Rs10,000 into a Rs 20,000 crore company commanding a market cap of roughly Rs1,15,000 crore, they rewrote the story of India Inc. A generationlater, the fabulously rich children of Infosys's founders have decided to ditchthe binary table for Spanish tapas, clothing lines and funding others' dreams.This is in keeping with founder-chairman N R Narayana Murthy's belief thatfamily members should keep off Infosys. Akshata, Murthy's first born, afterstints in the corporate world, is getting ready to launch an eponymously brandedclothing line. S D Shibulal is Infosys co-founder and chief operating officer. His daughter Shruti, too, is launching a Mediterranean grill called Fava after a debut in Bangalore's restaurant scene with a tapas lounge, Caperberry. Former joint Infosys MD N S Raghavan's sons, Sriram and Anand, are well-known venture capitalists running Nadathur Holdings & Investments and the newly formed Ojas Ventures. Other Infosys kids are still gettingan education. While Murthy's son Rohan is pursuing a doctoral programme incomputer science at Harvard, Nandan Nilekani's – who quit as Infosyschairman to head the government's Unique ID project – children Jahnavi, anaspiring economist, and Nihaar are both at Yale University. Whilethe youngsters say they hadn't deliberately planned to end up in careers at theother end of the IT spectrum, taking over the reigns of Infosys was out ofquestion, if only because it goes against the professional ethics of thecompany. Akshata Murthy, who did her schooling in Bangalore and college in Claremont McKenna in Los Angeles, held a couple of corporate jobs (consulting with Deloitte and, later, a spell with Unilever) before doing her MBA from Stanford. After a stint at the venture capital firm Siderian Ventures, she's found her true calling in fashion. Now, with the launch of herclothing line around the corner, Akshata says that she wants to maintain a lowprofile until she's truly successful. "I understand that there may be somecuriosity around what I'm doing given my parents' achievements, but I hope thatone day this business is able to stand on its own feet and I'm able to speak onits merit rather than anything else," she says. "This is my passion and Icouldn't imagine being engaged in anything else but the business of thisventure,'' says Akshata, who married Stanford classmate and third generationBritish Indian, Rishi Sunak, in August. With her clothing line,Akshata hopes to marry social activism with a successful commercial proposition.Her new label aims to revive traditional fabrics, motifs and weaves and in theprocess provide livelihood to rural artisans. According to reports, she plans onworking with NGOs to source material and then team it with Western styling. Thelabel is expected to retail in the US for between $150 - $400.Shruti Shibulal too has had her share of corporate jobs. A major in chemistry and minor in philosophy from Haverford College in Pennsylvania, Shruti did a one-year stint at Merrill Lynch. "I didn't find the job fulfilling and decided to return to India after a year,'' she says. "My parents were a bit taken aback at my decision. But there was no pressure on me to do IT, I never had any interest in it,'' she says, recalling that at a younger age she thought she would grow up to become a doctor. Raghavan's sons were both inthe US doing their own thing, when the pull of continuing their father's work ofbuilding an ecosystem in India to fund young entrepreneurs proved toocompelling. At Nadathur Investments, they have funded over a dozen ventures inthe life sciences and healthcare space. Companies backed by them includeMetahelix, Indegene Life Systems, Medi Assist and Connexios. LikeAkshata's abiding interest in fashion, Shruti has "always been interested inhospitality," and knew that one day she'd own a restaurant. Through commonfriends she connected with Abhijit Saha (former director, food and services atThe Park, Bangalore) and thus was born Caperberry. Shruti is set to go to an IvyLeague business school next year to hone her business skills.Shruti, Akshata, Sriram and Anand spent their formative years in theUS and worked there for a few years. What brought them back? "Opportunities weregreat in India. If you wanted to make a difference to society, India was theplace to be. There were few people like me who were gifted with the resources aswell as the wherewithal to make a difference,'' says Shruti. Thisbunch needn't work for their lunch. They are independently wealthy as they holdsubstantial Infosys shares. Akshata's net worth is Rs 2000 crore, while Shruti'sis Rs 900 crore. While making money per se doesn't drive them, theyseem very conscious about husbanding their inheritance. Shruti says that whatkeeps her ticking is that the idea of empowering others through employment. "IfI start a business and I'm able to hire 40 people, I'm actually empowering 40different families and through that innumerable opportunities open up,'' shesays. How do their parents view their children's journey? "WhenShruti first told us about her entrepreneurial venture, we had our fair share ofconcerns. But when she explained the finer details, we were convinced. We knewthat this is what she was really interested in and we supported her decisioncompletely,'' says Shibulal. Shibulal says he wants his daughter to learn fromobstacles that come her way. "Like any other entrepreneur, she will have hershare of ups and downs. We want all of those experiences to be entirely hers,''he says. Does the Infosys shadow loom large? Shruti says Infosysallowed her to understand that business in India can be fair, just andtransparent. "It's the same philosophy with which I do my job."