Nandan Nilekani
Co-founder and Non-Executive Chairman, Infosys- An alumnus of the prestigious Bishop Cotton Boys' School in Bengaluru, Nandan Nilekani graduated as an Electrical Engineer from the Indian Institute of Bombay in 1978
- After graduation, he joined Patni Computer Systems where he met Narayana Murthy. In 1981, the duo and five other colleagues founded Infosys. From 2002 to 2007, Nilekani served as the MD and CEO of India's most-valued technology company and during his tenure, Infosys' topline grew over six-fold to $3 billion
- The tech magnate played a crucial role in co-founding Indian IT industry lobby body, National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM)
- In 2009, he resigned from the Infosys Board as then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh invited Nandan Nilekani to head Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), in the rank of Cabinet Minister
- Nilekani was mandated with issuing unique, 12-digit Aadhaar ID numbers to all residents of India and he remained as head till he stepped down in 2014
- Known for timely execution and ability to work with diverse interests, the technocrat returned to Infosys in August 2017 as Non-Executive Chairman. In his second stint, he replaced R Seshasayee, who resigned as chairman of the board of Infosys
- His philanthropic initiatives include teaming up with Ratan Tata and setting up a microloan-focused NBFC called Avanti Finance, with initial investments of Rs 50 crore each
- In 2015, Nilekani and his wife Rohini, along with Shankar Maruwada, co-founded a not-for-profit technology-enabled platform to improve basic literacy and numeracy for millions of children. Based out of Bengaluru, they named the initiative EkStep, the funds for which came from the Nilekanis
Before you go ...
- Nandan Nilekani is a voracious reader and has authored two books, an autobiography in 2009 titled, 'Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation'. In 2015, he co-authored, '
Rebooting India : Realizing a Billion Aspirations' with Viral Shah. - Nilekani has received numerous awards during his lifetime, the major ones being Padma Bhushan in 2006, and the famous Joseph Schumpeter prize in 2005 for innovative services in economy and politics.
- He has also been honoured by Forbes,
Fortune , TIME Magazine, The Economist, Foreign Policy magazine among others.. - Nandan and Rohini Nilekani decided to donate 50% of their wealth to charity and signed the Bill Gates' Giving Pledge in 2017.
Nandan Nilekani News
Nandan Nilekani, Infosys co-founder and Aadhaar architect, urged India to focus AI development on practical uses like healthcare and education, not in chasing global dominance. Speaking at an Asia Society event, he warned of AI leading to wealth concentration and rejected the idea of universal basic income. Drawing from India's digital innovations like Aadhaar and UPI, Nilekani emphasised frugal, people-first design and the need to innovate for over a billion citizens. He called for technology that amplifies human potential, not sidelines it.
Nandan Nilekani’s Fundamentum, Elevation Capital and Peak XV Partner also participated in the funding for the parent company of the devotional platform, Sri Mandir. The funds will be used to invest in over 20 temple towns in India, strengthen services and commerce verticals, and set up fulfilment and logistics hubs.
To foster better coordination and data sharing within the power sector, the government is developing a digital platform called the India Energy Stack. A 17-member task force, led by Ram Sewak Sharma and Nandan Nilekani, will spearhead this initiative. This digital infrastructure aims to address fragmented systems and support India's goals of achieving a $5 trillion economy and net-zero emissions.
The Ministry of Power has officially appointed Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys, as the Chief Mentor of the Task Force responsible for creating the India Energy Stack. This initiative aims to establish a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) to streamline and update processes throughout the energy sector. The announcement confirms a prior report by ET on June 18.
Infosys is training its workforce in AI and adapting to a fragmented global market, according to co-founder Nandan Nilekani. While companies invest heavily in AI, tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft are also implementing layoffs. Firms need to modernize legacy systems and data architecture to effectively utilize AI.
Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani addressed shareholders at the AGM, highlighting global challenges like tariff wars and the energy transition. He emphasized the shift towards fragmented markets, urging supply chain diversification and AI adoption. Infosys is training employees in AI and working on numerous generative AI projects, while also expanding into tier-2 and 3 cities for talent acquisition.
Nandan Nilekani is poised to lead a government task force aimed at digitizing and decentralizing India's power sector, potentially mirroring the success of UPI in energy. This initiative, supported by the RDSS, seeks to cut generation, transmission, and distribution costs by up to 25%.
Flexiloans, an NBFC focusing on small businesses, secured Rs 375 crore in funding, led by existing investors like Fundamentum and Accion. This capital infusion, a mix of primary and secondary, will fuel its expansion into secured lending and insurance distribution. Flexiloans achieved profitability for three consecutive years, with Rs 263 crore revenue and Rs 3 crore profit in FY24.
AI4Bharat aims to gather 15,000 hours of transcribed data from over 400 districts encompassing all 22 scheduled languages of India. In parallel, its in-house team of over 100 translators is creating a parallel corpus with 2.2 million translation pairs across 22 languages.
Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani warns global businesses about navigating a world fragmented into blocs due to geopolitical uncertainties. Companies must adapt strategies, diversify sourcing due to tariffs, and modernise legacy systems to harness AI's potential.
