Bangalore: Philanthropist Sudha Murthy has been leading relief efforts for flood-affected people in Kerala and adjoining Kodagu in Karnataka, personally helping pack essential items and having them delivered.
Sudha, chairperson of the NGO Infosys Foundation and wife of Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, has even opened a small centre to pack the relief material at her home in Jayanagar in the city.
An aide to Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said Sudha has been sending relief material to flood-affected areas by road. "She is herself packing the material with the help of a few volunteers at her home. She has always come forth to help those in distress," the official, who did not want to be named, said.
A mobile phone video that has been circulating on social media shows Sudha, 68, participating in the relief work by guiding the volunteers.
The packets with Infosys insignia were later sent to Kodagu in the Western Ghats that also saw landslides that hit neighbouring Kerala.
Sudha could not be reached for comment as she was still busy with relief work.
The video comes at a time Karnataka public works minister H.D. Revanna, brother of chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, was seen throwing biscuit packets at refugees at a relief camp in Kodagu.
Revanna had come in for flak from the Opposition BJP for his "arrogance". He later claimed he was trying to hand over the biscuit packets to those beyond his arm's reach.
Union minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda was among the many who shared the video and praised Sudha for her work for flood victims. "Amma Sudha Murthy," was how he referred to her on Twitter.
Sudha, who is among the richest women in the country as one of the first shareholders of Infosys that was bootstrapped by her husband and a slew of engineers such Nandan Nilekani and Kris Gopalakrishnan, has been actively working for rural education, public hygiene and poverty alleviation.
"There are some who never get carried away with money," Kiran Kumar S., who has also shared the video, said. "They are down to earth."
