Nandan M. Nilekani- The Aadhaar Man

Meghashree Das

Sep 2, 2020 — 4 min read

Nandan M. Nilekani, is the co-founder of Infosys. He is an Indian entrepreneur, bureaucrat and politician. Nicknamed as 'Aadhaar Man', he was the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). He is the tech magnate, who still has shares in Infosys, has backed Fundamentum, a $100 million venture capital fund aimed at technology companies.

Read more to know all about this legend.

Biography of Nandan M. Nilekani

Name	Nandan M. Nilekani
Born On	2 June, 1995
Nationality	Indian
Spouse	Rohini Nilekani
Profession	Non- Executive Chairman of Infosys
Political Party	INC
Compensation	$77,599
Net Worth	$ 200 crores

Childhood and Education
Family
Career
Books
Awards and Achievements

Nandan M. Nilekani- Childhood and Education

Nilekani was born on 2nd June, 1995 in Bangalore, Karnataka. His family belongs to KonkaniGoud Saraswat Brahmin community which is originally from Sirsi town in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka.

He did his schooling from Bishop Cotton Boys' School and St. Joseph High School Dharwad. Because of his father’s frequent job transfers and subsequent relocation he had to change schools. After that he got his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai in 1978.

His first language is Konkani. In addition to Konkani, he speaks Kannada fluently along with English, Marathi, and Hindi

Nandan M. Nilekani- Family

His father, Mohan Rao Nilekani worked as a general manager of Mysore and Minerva. He had subscribed to Fabina Socialist ideals which influenced Nilekani in his early life.
His mother's name is Durga Nilekani.
He also has an elder brother, Vijay Nilekani who works in the Nuclear Energy Institute in the USA.
He married to Rohini Nilekani. He meet her at a quizzing event at IIT. He along with his wife Rohini signed the Giving Pledge in November 2017.
He wards two children, Nihar and Janhavi, each of whom has received an undergraduate degree from Yale University.
His family has a 2.31 percent stake in Infosys as per the quarter ended March 2018.

Nandan M. Nilekani- Career

Infosys

After completion of his graduation, he joined Patni Computers under N. R. Narayan Murthy. Three years later, he along with Murthy and 5 others, founded Infosys Technologies Ltd, which went on to became an IT giant in India.

Nilekani became the chief executive officer of Infosys in March 2002 and served as CEO of the company through April 2007. But Nilekani left Infosys in 2009, to join the UIDAI as the chairman on request of the former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh.

But was brought back in 2017 after a boardroom shakeup at the company and the sudden departure of its CEO. After his return he changed power center from California back to its Bengaluru headquarters. During his five-year tenure as CEO, Infosys' topline grew sixfold to $3 billion.

Politics

Nilekani joined Indian National Congress in March 2014. He contested from the Bangalore South constituency where he lost by 228,575 votes to BJP candidate Ananth Kumar in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

He joined a committee to investigate how people in India could use digital payments to a greater extent in December 2016.

Nandan M. Nilekani- Books

Not Just a Civil Servant 1 January- 2019
Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century- 2008
Rebooting India : Realizing a billion aspirations- 2015

Nandan M. Nilekani- Awards and Achievements

On 31 May 2011, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law degree by the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
In 2011, he received NDTV Indian of the Year's Transformational Idea of the Year Award.
At the Asia Business Leaders Award (2004), he was named Corporate Citizen of the Year organised, by CNBC.
He also won Joseph Schumpeter Prize for innovative services in economy, economic sciences and politics in 2005.
In 2009, Nilekani was placed in the Time 100 list of 'World's Most Influential People' in Time magazine.
In November 2009, he was presented the 'Legend in Leadership Award' by the Yale University . He is the first Indian to receive this top honour.
Nilekani became one of the youngest entrepreneurs to join 20 global leaders on the World Economic Forum (WEF) Foundation Board, in January 2006.
In 2006, Nilekani was awarded one of India's highest civilian honours, the Padma Bhushan.
Also, he was named Businessman of the Year by Forbes Asia in 2006.
He was ranked 12th in India's 50 most powerful people of 2017 list in India Today magazine.
He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from E & Y. CNBC- TV 18 conferred India Business leader award for outstanding contributor to the Indian Economy-2017.
In 2017, he received the 22nd Nikkei Asia Prize for Economic & Business Innovation 2017.
In 2019, awarded Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) by IIT Bombay during the Institute's 57th Convocation.