Nandan Nilekani Journey: From Infosys to Aadhaar

We all must have heard about the multinational company, "Infosys." With more than forty years of expertise in managing the systems and operations of multinational organizations, Infosys effectively guides its customers through their digital transformation journey.

India is frequently referred to as the globe's IT hub, and the credit for this goes to a few jewels. Nandan Nilekani, the co-founder of Infosys, is one of them. He is the guy behind India's "Aadhar Cards," which have been used to register 131.68 crore individuals to date. He was the driving force behind India's IT boom, beginning in 1978 when companies like Microsoft didn't even exist.

He is a legend and an inspiration to the educated Indian middle class, who perceive him as a guy who has risen to exceptional levels in life only through hard work. After watching his father's repeated work migrations and following migrations in his early days, he aspired to be an independent entrepreneur.

After acquiring an education from the IIT, where he learned to work hard and perform as part of a team, he was transformed from a small-town youngster to a confident and mature young man. He also grasped the necessity of giving back to society, which is an essential aspect of his persona that hasn't changed over the years.

Read this article further, to know about the history and journey of Nandan Nilekani, starting from his early life, education, net worth, family, and more.

Nandan Nilekani - Biography

Nandan Nilekani - Early Life and Education
Nandan Nilekani - Family
Nandan Nilekani - Career
Nandan Nilekani - Investments
Nandan Nilekani - Books
Nandan Nilekani - Awards and Recognitions

Nandan Nilekani - Early Life and Education

Nandan Nilekani was born in Bangalore, Karnataka, on June 2, 1955. His parents, Durga and Mohan Rao Nilekani are from Sirsi, a small town in the Northern Karnataka region. Konkani is his first language. In addition to Konkani, he is fluent in Kannada, English, Marathi, and Hindi.

Nilekani attended Bishop Cotton Boys' School and St. Joseph's High School in Dharwad, Karnataka PU College Dharwad, and graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in Mumbai with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering.

Nandan Nilekani - Family

Nandan Nilekani's father's and mother's names are Mohan Rao Nilekani and Durga Rao Nilekani, respectively. His father was the general manager of Mysore and Minerva Mills, and he believed in Fabian Socialist ideas, which impacted Nilekani as a child. Vijay Nilekani, Nilekani's older brother, works at the Nuclear Energy Institute in the United States.

Nilekani married Rohini Nilekani, whom he met during an IIT quiz contest. Nihar and Janhavi are their two children, both of whom have graduated from Yale University with a bachelor's degree.

Nandan Nilekani - Career

Information Technology and Infosys

He began his career in 1978 at Patni Computer Systems in Mumbai, when he met and was interviewed by N.R. Narayana Murthy. Nilekani, Murthy, and five of his other Patni colleagues resigned in 1981 to establish Infosys. Nilekani became the Chief Executive Officer of Infosys in March 2002 and held the position until April 2007, when he passed over the reigns to his colleague Kris Gopalakrishnan and became co-chairman of the executive board. Nilekani held many positions before becoming CEO in 2002, including managing director, chief operating officer, and president.

From March 2002 to April 2007, he was the company's CEO. Infosys' revenue grew exponentially during his five-year term as CEO. He returned to Infosys in 2017 when CEO Vishal Sikka left to become chairman. Upon his return, he relocated the company's power center from California to Bengaluru.

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Bureaucracy

Nilekani left Infosys in July 2009 to become the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, which he accepted at the request of then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. As the head of the UIDAI, he was in charge of implementing the Multipurpose National Identity Card, or Unique Identity Card program in India.

This effort intends to equip every Indian inhabitant with a unique identity number, which will be used largely to effectively deliver social benefits. The means of identification was biometric, and the effort to construct a government database of India's entire population has been dubbed "the world's largest social enterprise."

They created Aadhaar, an Indian biometric ID system that includes a database of population information and home locations for Indians. In April 2017, 1.14 billion Indians received their national identification number. Aadhaar was dubbed "the most advanced ID scheme in the world" by World Bank Chief Economist Paul Romer in 2016. This software has been chastised for invading people's privacy and disclosing sensitive data.

He is the president of NCAER and a member of the ICRIER, which stands for, the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations' Board of Governors. He also belongs to the Bombay Heritage Fund and the World Economic Forum Foundation's advisory boards.

Nilekani, to promote his book Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation, has been on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He also gave a TED talk about his vision for India's future in 2009.

NASSCOM

NASSCOM was founded by Harish Mehta, Ashank Desai, Nandan Nilekani, Shiv Nadar, and Narayana Murthy. The National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) is an Indian non-governmental trade association and advocacy group focused on advancing the country's technology industry. Established in 1988, NASSCOM operates as a nonprofit organization, playing a crucial role in shaping and supporting the Indian tech sector.

EkStep

EkStep is a non-profit literacy and numeracy platform. Nilekani is the chairman of EkStep. EkStep, which was founded by the Nilekani with an initial investment of $10 million (about INR 65 crore), aims to solve the 'learning problem' by developing a technology-driven platform to assist youngsters in enhancing their 'learning outcomes' from a young age. EkStep plans to achieve so through gamified applications available on the Google Play Store.

Politics

In March 2014, Nilekani joined the Indian National Congress and contested the Bangalore South Lok Sabha seat election. He lost by 228,575 votes versus Bhartiya Janta Party's candidate Ananth Kumar. He joined a committee in December 2016 to look at how consumers in India may make better use of digital payments.

NCAER

Nilekani is the president of the NCAER, which stands for, National Council of Applied Economic Research. NCAER is India's oldest and biggest non-profit economic research think tank, situated in New Delhi. NCAER, which was launched in 1956, conducts sponsored research and independent economic policy research projects for governments and businesses.

Its research spans practically every aspect of economics, from forecasting to poverty studies. NCAER is one of only a few think tanks in the world that collects primary survey data from homes, businesses, customers, and individuals on a scientific, nationwide scale. The NCAER's social and economic data sets are frequently utilized in Indian research and analysis.

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Nandan Nilekani - Investments

Nandan Nilekani has made around 20 personal investments to date, which are as follows :

Nandan Nilekani - Books

• Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation
• Rebooting India: Realizing a Billion Aspirations

Nilekani co-authored his third book with Tanuj Bhojwani, “The Art of Bitfulness: Keeping calm in the digital world” which was released in January 2022.

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Nandan Nilekani - Awards, and Recognitions

FAQs

Is Nandan Nikaleni still with Infosys?

Nandan Nikaleni is the Non-executive chairman of Infosys.

What is the net worth of Nandan Nikaleni?

The net worth of Nandan Nikaleni is $3.4 billion (September 2024).

What are Nandan Nilekani's education qualifications?

Nandan Nilekani is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in Mumbai with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering.

What is Nandan Nilekani age?

The age of Nandan Nilekani is 69 years, he was born on June 2, 1955.