Shiv Nadar

Shiv Nadar (born 14 July 1945) is an Indian billionaire businessman and philanthropist who founded HCL Technologies, one of India's largest IT services companies. With a net worth of approximately $40 billion, he is among India's top billionaires. Nadar is widely recognized not just for building a technology empire but also for his extraordinary philanthropy, particularly in education. Born in Mallasamudram village in Tiruchirappalli district of Tamil Nadu, Nadar studied at PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore. He began his career at Walchand group's Cooper Engineering before co-founding HCL (Hindustan Computers Limited) in 1976 with a group of his colleagues. Starting as a hardware company making microcomputers, HCL evolved under Nadar's leadership into a global IT services giant. HCL Technologies today is a $15 billion IT services company with operations in 52 countries and over 225,000 employees. It provides IT consulting, software development, and business process outsourcing to major global corporations. The company has been a pioneer in IT services in India and is among the top five IT companies in the country. Nadar's most significant contribution may be his philanthropy through the Shiv Nadar Foundation, which he established in 1994. The foundation runs the Vidya Gyan schools in Uttar Pradesh, providing free education to meritorious students from underprivileged backgrounds. The SSN Institutions in Chennai, including SSN College of Engineering, are among the top engineering colleges in India. The foundation has invested over $1 billion in education initiatives, impacting over 30,000 students.