21 Facts About Nandan Nilekani

1.

Nandan Mohanrao Nilekani was born on 2 June 1955 and is an Indian entrepreneur.

2.

Nandan Nilekani 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.

3.

Nandan Nilekani was the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India.

4.

Nandan Nilekani is a member of Indian National Congress but not active in politics as of 2019.

5.

Nandan Nilekani was born on 2 June 1955 at Bangalore.

6.

Nandan Nilekani's father worked as a general manager of Mysore and Minerva Mills and subscribed to Fabian Socialist ideals that influenced Nilekani in his early years.

7.

Nandan 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.

8.

Nandan 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.

9.

Nandan Nilekani served as its CEO from March 2002 to April 2007.

10.

Nandan 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.

11.

Nandan Nilekani is a member of the board of governors of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations and the president of NCAER.

12.

Nandan Nilekani sits on several advisory boards, including those of the World Economic Forum Foundation and the Bombay Heritage Fund.

13.

Nandan 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.

14.

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

15.

Nandan Nilekani is chairman of EkStep, a non-profit literacy and numeracy platform.

16.

Nandan Nilekani is president of the governing body of the New Delhi-based National Council of Applied Economic Research, India's largest and oldest non-profit economic research think tank.

17.

Nandan Nilekani is a serial investor and he has invested in around 12 start-ups till date which includes: ShopX, Juggernaut, Mubble Networks, Fortigo, P2SME, RailYatri, Axiom Consulting, Systemantics India, Sedemac Mechatronics, Disha Medical Services, Tracxn, LetsVenture and TravelTriangle.

18.

In 2017 Nandan Nilekani and wife Rohini decided to donate 50 percent of their wealth to Giving Pledge, which is a movement organized by Bill Gates.

19.

Nandan Nilekani donated money to rebuild the hostel campus of IIT Bombay.

20.

Nandan Nilekani is married to Rohini Nandan Nilekani, whom he met at a quizzing event at IIT.

21.

The Nandan Nilekani family has a 2.31 percent stake in Infosys as per the quarter ended March 2018.