Nandan M. Nilekani

Co-founder and Chairman of the Board

Nandan Nilekani is the Co-Founder and Chairman of Infosys Technologies Limited. He was the Founding Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in the rank of a Cabinet Minister from 2009-2014. Nandan has co-founded and is the Chairman of EkStep Foundation, a not-for-profit effort to create a learner centric, technology-based platform to improve basic literacy and numeracy for millions of children. In January 2023, he was appointed as the co-chair of the “G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure for Economic Transformation, Financial Inclusion, and Development.”

Born in Bengaluru, Nilekani received his Bachelor’s degree from Indian Institution of Technology (IIT), Bombay. Fortune Magazine conferred him as “Asia’s Businessman of the year 2003.” In 2005 he received the prestigious Joseph Schumpeter prize for innovative services in economy, economic sciences, and politics. In 2006, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan. He was also named Businessman of the Year by Forbes Asia. Time magazine listed him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2006 & 2009. Foreign Policy magazine listed him as one of the Top 100 Global thinkers in 2010. In 2014, he won The Economist Social & Economic Innovation Award for his leadership of India’s Unique Identification initiative (Aadhaar). In 2017, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from E & Y. CNBC-TV 18 conferred him with the India Business leader award for outstanding contributor to the Indian Economy-2017 and he also received the 22nd Nikkei Asia Prize for Economic & Business Innovation 2017. He was inducted as International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019. Business Standard Annual awards 2022 conferred “The Lifetime Achievement Award.” TIME Magazine has featured him among 100 Most Influential People in AI-2024.

Nandan Nilekani is the author of “Imagining India”, co-authored his second book with Viral Shah, “Rebooting India: Realizing a Billion Aspirations” and co-authored his third book with Tanuj Bhojwani, “The Art of Bitfulness: Keeping calm in the digital world,” released in January 2022.