Nandan Nilekani (born 2 June 1955) is an Indian technology entrepreneur and the co-founder and chairman of Infosys, one of India’s largest IT companies. He left the company in 2009 to head the government’s Unique Identification Authority of India, where he built Aadhaar, the biometric identity system that now covers more than a billion people. He has since helped shape India’s digital public infrastructure, including the UPI payments system, and is one of the country’s biggest philanthropists.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Nandan Mohanrao Nilekani |
| Born | 2 June 1955, Bangalore (now Bengaluru), India |
| Age | 71 |
| Education | IIT Bombay (B.Tech. electrical engineering, 1978) |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, technocrat |
| Known for | Co-founder of Infosys; architect of Aadhaar |
| Position | Non-executive chairman, Infosys (since 2017) |
| Spouse | Rohini Nilekani |
| Children | 2 (Janhavi and Nihar) |
| Honour | Padma Bhushan (2006) |
Early Life
Nilekani was born in Bangalore into a Konkani-speaking family. His father, Mohan Rao Nilekani, was a manager at a textile mill. He spent part of his childhood with an uncle in Dharwad in north Karnataka, where he went to school. He studied electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, graduating in 1978; he has said that IIT gave him his confidence and leadership skills.
Career
After IIT, Nilekani joined Patni Computer Systems in Mumbai, where he was interviewed by N. R. Narayana Murthy. In 1981 Murthy, Nilekani and five other colleagues left to found Infosys in Pune with a small amount of borrowed capital. Nilekani handled sales and marketing in the United States during the company’s early years. He was chief executive from 2002 to 2007, a period in which Infosys’s revenues grew several times over, and then co-chairman. His remark that the global playing field was being levelled inspired the title of Thomas Friedman’s bestselling book The World Is Flat.
In 2009 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh invited Nilekani to chair the new Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), with the rank of a cabinet minister. He led the design and roll-out of Aadhaar, a 12-digit identity number linked to fingerprints and iris scans, which became the foundation for direct transfers of welfare payments and for digital banking. He stepped down in 2014 to contest the Lok Sabha election from Bangalore South for the Congress party, which he lost.
In August 2017, after a boardroom crisis and the resignation of its chief executive, Infosys asked Nilekani to return as non-executive chairman. He has also advised on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), FASTag, the GST network and the Open Network for Digital Commerce, and he chaired a Reserve Bank of India committee on digital payments in 2019.
Philanthropy
Nilekani and his wife, Rohini, signed the Giving Pledge in 2017, promising to give away at least half of their wealth. They founded the EkStep Foundation, which builds learning technology for children. He has donated about ₹400 crore to IIT Bombay, including ₹315 crore in 2023, one of the largest gifts by an alumnus to an Indian institution.
Personal Life
Nilekani met Rohini, a journalist and author, at a quiz event at IIT Bombay, and they married in 1981. They have a daughter, Janhavi, and a son, Nihar, and live in Bengaluru.
Books
Awards and Honours
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Nandan Nilekani born?
Nandan Nilekani was born on 2 June 1955 in Bangalore (now Bengaluru), India and is 71 years old.
What is Nandan Nilekani known for?
Known for: Co-founder of Infosys; architect of Aadhaar.
Featured image: Nandan Nilekani speaks to the press after taking charge as chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, New Delhi, 23 July 2009. Photo by Planning Commission, licensed under Government Open Data License – India, via Wikimedia Commons.
