Nandan Nilekani is a big name in the Indian IT world. He’s Narayana Murthy’s business partner and helped him start Infosys, one of India’s top tech companies. Infosys is now worth Rs 704,000 crore. Besides being smart in business, Nandan Nilekani and his wife are also known for their charity work. Rohini Nilekani, his wife, is the most giving woman in India according to the EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2023. In 2022, she gave around Rs 1,200,000,000 and increased to Rs 1,700,000,000 in 2023. Nandan Nilekani donated over Rs 1,890,000,000 last year. They’ve decided to give away half of their wealth to the Giving Pledge, organized by Bill Gates.
Nilekani also invests in start-ups. He’s invested in 12, including ShopX, Juggernaut, Mubble Networks, and others. Born in Bangalore, Nilekani started his journey in 1978 at Patni Computer Systems in Mumbai. There, he met Narayana Murthy. After 3 years, Nilekani, Murthy, and five others left Patni to start Infosys.
Nilekani held different positions at Infosys before becoming CEO in March 2002, leading till April 2007. Under his leadership, Infosys grew sixfold to $3 billion. He also got the Padma Bhushan, a top civilian award in India.
In 2009, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked Nilekani to lead the Unique Identification Authority of India. He introduced the Aadhar card, now used by over 1 billion Indians as their main ID.
