Ratan Tata is one of the most celebrated industrialists in India. Known for his philanthropic activities and contribution to the Indian economy, he has led Tata Motors to new heights. Although Tata Motors is the one of leading auto manufacturers in India, not many are aware that the company was started by Ratan Tata’s grandfather JRD Tata and Sudha Murthy, who is philanthropist and chairperson of the Infosys, was the first woman engineer at Tata Motors, which was called Telco at that time. She is now the mother-in-law of UK’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, but she is the reason that a certain percentage of the workforce at Tata Motors is now female.
When Sudha Murthy joined Tata Motors, she understood that this is a male-dominated sector and to bring diversity to the workplace, she wrote a letter to Ratan Tata’s grandfather JRD Tata that read, “Men and women are equal, and women contribute 50% task force of India. If you don’t give women a chance, then you are cutting the 50% workforce of India, and therefore, our country will not progress.”
Following the letter, JRD Tata called Sudha Murthy for an interview and the rest is history. As per CarBlogIndia, in one of her recent social media post Sudha Murthy revealed that she “visited Pune Telco, which is now known as Tata Motors. After 40-50 years, I went there. 300 girls were working, as I could see. When I saw this, I started to cry.” It is worth noticing that all this is a reward of that one request she made to Ratan Tata’s grandfather at that time.
