Shiv Nadar - A Powerhouse and a Philanthropist

Shiv Nadar, the promoter-chairman of HCL Technologies and the Shiv Nadar Foundation, is an electrical and electronics engineering graduate from PSG College of Engineering. As an early pioneer of India’s IT industry, he co-founded Hindustan Computers Ltd in 1976 with an initial investment of Rs.1.87 lakh. The company, now known as HCL Technologies Ltd, has since diversified into over 40 subsidiaries and shifted its focus from IT hardware manufacturing to software development and outsourced services, achieving a revenue of Rs.16,034 crore in fiscal 2011-12. In 2007, Nadar stepped down as the company's chief executive to dedicate himself full-time to the Shiv Nadar Foundation.

Established in 1994, the Shiv Nadar Foundation has launched several educational initiatives. These include the VidyaGyan primary school for rural children in Uttar Pradesh and the first of its planned chain of state-of-the-art K-12 Shiv Nadar Schools across India. The foundation also laid the cornerstone for Shiv Nadar University on a 286-acre site in Delhi’s National Capital Region, and promoted the SSN College of Engineering (1996), the SSN School of Management and Computer Applications, the SSN School of Advanced Software Engineering in Chennai, and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (established in 2010). “The foundation’s focus on education evolved from my personal belief in education as the single most powerful tool for individual and social change,” says Nadar.