Nandan Nilekani

Some Lesser Known Facts About Nandan Nilekani

• During his early years, his father had frequent job transfers at different locations, therefore, at age 12, he decided to move to Dharwad district in Karnataka to live with his uncle so that his studies would not get affected.

• His mother tongue is Konkani.

• In 1978, he was interviewed by N.R. Narayana Murthy for his first job after which he got selected at the Mumbai-based ‘Patni Computer Systems.’

• In 1981, he co-founded Infosys with 6 others under the leadership of Narayana Murthy, which later proved to be India’s biggest IT giant.

• In 1999, he helped develop a broader initiative, the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) that worked with public, private, and NGO agencies to help resolve Bangalore’s infrastructure and governance challenges.

• From 2002 to 2007, he was the CEO of Infosys after which he became the co-chairman of the board of directors of the company.

• When he took over as CEO, Infosys was in crisis due to a recession in 2001, but in 2006, Infosys reached an absolute high point.

• He also co-founded NASSCOM and the Bangalore Chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).

• In 2006, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.

• He was named ‘Businessman of the Year’ by Forbes Asia in 2006.

• In 2006 and 2009, he was listed by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

• In 2008, he wrote ‘Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation’ which was one of the finalists for the FT-Goldman Sachs Book Award for the year 2009.

• In 2009, he stepped down from the position of the co-Chairman of Infosys to serve as the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) or Aadhaar, a cabinet-ranking position, at the invitation of then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

• As a philanthropist, he contributed to non-profit efforts in water infrastructure, micro-credit, and social research. He also invested in education and healthcare by donating big amounts of money.

• In 2015, Nandan, his wife Rohini Nilekani, and Shankar Maruwada co-founded ‘EkStep’, a not-for-profit initiative that aims to extend learning opportunities to Indian children through a collaborative, universal platform that facilitates the creation and consumption of educational content.

• In December 2016, a month after the NDA government announced the demonetization, Prime Minister Narendra Modi roped him in as the government’s digital advisor.

• In August 2017, he returned to the Infosys board after being named non-executive, non-independent chairman of the company.

• His family holds 2.29% of Infosys.

• In June 2023, he announced that he would donate Rs. 315 crores to IIT-Bombay, which he joined in 1973, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering; he earlier donated Rs. 85 crores to the institution, making his total donation to the institute to be Rs. 400 crores.