Үнді кәсіпкері Нандан Нилекани туралы

Indian businessman

Nandan Mohanrao Nilekani is an Indian entrepreneur. He co founded Infosys and is the non executive chairman of Infosys replacing R Seshasayee and Ravi Venkatesan, who were the co chairs of the board, on 24 August 2017. After the exit of Vishal Sikka, Nilekani was appointed as non executive chairman of the board effective 24 August 2017. He was the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). After a successful career at Infosys, he headed the Government of India's technology committee, TAGUP. He is a member of Indian National Congress but not active in politics as of 2019.

Nandan Nilekani was born in Bangalore. His parents Durga and Mohan Rao Nilekani were Konkani originally from Sirsi in Karnataka. His father worked as a general manager of Mysore and Minerva Mills and subscribed to Fabian Socialist ideals that influenced Nilekani in his early years. Nilekani's elder brother, Vijay, works in the Nuclear Energy Institute in the United States. Nilekani studied at the Bishop Cotton Boys' School and St. Joseph's High School Dharwad, Karnataka PU College Dharwad and received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

In 1978 he started his career at the Mumbai based Patni Computer Systems, where he met and was interviewed by N. R. Narayana Murthy. In 1981, Nilekani, Murthy, and five others left Patni to start their own company, Infosys. Nilekani became the chief executive officer of Infosys in March 2002 and served as CEO of the company through April 2007, when he relinquished his position to his colleague Kris Gopalakrishnan and became co chairman of the board of directors. Before assuming leadership as CEO in 2002, Nilekani held various posts, including managing director, president, and chief operating officer. He served as its CEO from March 2002 to April 2007. During his five year tenure as CEO, Infosys' topline grew sixfold to $3 billion. In 2017 he returned to Infosys after the exit of CEO Vishal Sikka to become a chairman. Upon his return he changed power centre from California back to its Bengaluru headquarters. Also, such people as R. Seshasayee (a chairman and board director), Ravi Venkatesan (a co chairman), Sikka (executive vice chairman and director), and Jeffrey Lehman and John Etchemendy (directors) resigned from their posts.

Nilekani left Infosys in July 2009 to serve as the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, a cabinet ranking position that he entered under the invitation of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. They developed Aadhaar, which is an Indian biometric ID system, a database, which contains demographic information, home addresses of Indians. In April 2017 1.14 billion Indian people got their ID number. In 2016, World Bank Chief Economist Paul Romer called Aadhaar “the most sophisticated ID programme in the world.” This program is criticized for violating people's privacy and exposing personal information. He is a member of the board of governors of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and the president of NCAER. Nilekani has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to promote his book Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation and spoke at a TED conference in 2009 on his ideas for India's future.

Nilekani joined Indian National Congress in March 2014 and contested from the Bangalore South constituency where he lost by votes to BJP candidate Ananth Kumar in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. In December 2016, he joined a committee to investigate how people in India could use digital payments to a greater extent.

According to news reports, he was the richest candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with declared assets worth Rs 7,710 crore in his affidavit filed before the Election Commission.

Nilekani is chairman of EkStep, a non profit literacy and numeracy platform. Set up by the Nilekanis with an initial commitment of $10 million (about Rs 82 crore), EkStep looks at solving the 'learning problem' by creating a technology led platform to help children in improving their 'learning outcomes' quite early in their life. EkStep intends to do it using gamified apps, hosted in the Google Play Store.

Nilekani is president of the governing body of the New Delhi based National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), India’s largest and oldest non profit economic research think tank. NCAER, established in 1956, does grant funded independent economic policy research and sponsored research studies for governments and industry. Its work covers almost all branches of economics, from economic forecasting to poverty analysis. NCAER is among a handful of think tanks globally that collect primary survey data on a scientific, national basis covering households, enterprises, consumers, and individuals. NCAER’s economic and social data sets are used widely for research and analysis on India.

Nilekani is also a serial investor and he has invested in technologoy startups including 10i Commerce, Juggernaut, Mubble Networks, Fortigo, P2SME, Railyatri, Axiom Consulting, Systemantics India, Sedemac Mechatronics, Disha Medical Services, Tracxn Technologies, and LetsVenture.

In 2017 Nandan and wife Rohini decided to donate 50 percent of their wealth to Giving Pledge, which is a movement organized by Bill Gates. The reason why they joined this movement was as following: "We see inequality is increasing sharply in most countries. We see the young and the restless in this interconnected globe, unsure of their future, wanting more but anticipating less." He also donated money to rebuild the hostel campus of IIT Bombay. In 2008 he also set up the Indian Institute for Human Settlements to help to solve urban challenges for India.

Nilekani is married to Rohini Nilekani (née Soman), whom he met at a quizzing event at IIT. They have two children, Nihar and Janhavi, each of whom has received an undergraduate degree from Yale University. His first language is Konkani. In addition to Konkani, he speaks Kannada fluently along with English, Marathi, and Hindi. The Nilekani family has a 2.31 percent stake in Infosys as per the quarter ended March 2018.