Shiv Nadar is a philanthropic Indian billionaire industrialist who is popularly known as one of the founders of the multi-billion dollar IT firm HCL Technologies. He also often makes generous donations through his foundation Shiv Nadar Foundation.
Wiki/Biography
Shiv Nadar was born on Saturday, 14 July 1945 (age 76 years; as of 2021) in Moolaipozhi, Madras Presidency, British India (now Madras State, Tamil Nadu). His zodiac sign is Cancer. His friends often called him Magus (a Persian word for wizard). [1] Shiv Nadar attended several schools throughout his schooling years. He went to Town Higher Secondary School, Kumbakonam, and then he went to Elango Corporation Higher Secondary School in Madurai. In June 1955, he attended the Town High School until 1957. From there he went to St. Joseph Boys Higher Secondary School, Trichy and he completed his high school education. Shiv Nadar then received a pre-university degree from the American College, Madurai, and then went to PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore to complete his graduation in Electrical and Electronics engineering. [2]
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 7″
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Half bald
Family
Parents & Siblings
Shiv Nadar’s father’s name is Sivasubramaniya Nadar, and his mother’s name is Vamasundari Devi.
Wife & Children
Shiv Nadar is married to Kiran Shiv Nadar. She is an avid art collector. Together they have a daughter – Roshni Nadar Malhotra, who is the chairperson of HCL Technologies.
Shiv Nadar with his wife Kiran Nadar
Shiv Nadar with his daughter, Roshni Nadar
Career
Shiv Nadar started his professional journey in 1967 with Walchand group’s company, Cooper Engineering Ltd. in Pune. From there, he moved to Delhi Cloth Mills where he worked with his classmates for their marketing team. During this time, he and his friends decided to quit their jobs and work on a product of their own. Shiv Nadar along with Subhash Arora, Ajai Chowdhry, Yogesh Vaidya, S. Raman, Mahendra Pratap, Arjun Malhotra, and DS Puri started their first company called Microcomp. The company was selling teledigital calculators in the Indian market. Further, in 1976, with a capital of Rs. 2 lakh, they invested Rs, 187,000 in a new direction and founded HCL Technologies Ltd. With the success of the company, HCL expanded its operations and moved to the international market with its first office opening of Far East Computers in Singapore. They sold IT hardware in Singapore which helped them in generating Rs 1 million in revenue, allowing them to continue their operations. Shiv Nadar was a majority stakeholder in the firm but he didn’t retain any management control.
Shiv Nadar with his friends and co-founders of HCL
In 1989, Shiv Nadar moved to the American computer hardware market but due to the presence of Apple and strict restrictions of the American market, they failed to enter the market. However, in 1991, HCL teamed up with Hewlett Packard to enter the US market and formed HCL HP Limited. In 1998, Shiv Nadar divided the business into several different categories – HCL Technologies was the global IT service company, HCL Infosystems became the IT hardware providers, HCL comnet provided network service to their clients, HCL Perot focused on delivering IT applications and NIIT was the educational service wing.
Philanthropy
In 1994, Shiv Nadar decided to focus more on his philanthropic interests and started the Shiv Nadar Foundation. The aim of the foundation was to work for the benefit of future generations by providing them access to education and good quality of life. Following his passion for philanthropy, Shiv Nadar founded the Sri Sivasubramanium Nadar College of Engineering in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in 1996. The college was named after his father, and over the years, he opened several other branches of education within the campus; thus changing it to SSN Institution. Followed by this, he gifted the college HCL shares worth Rs. 1 million for their funds. In 2006, he announced that the University will be focusing on providing help to students by improving and promoting research, and offering other benefits to students with their tie-ups with foreign universities. In 2008, the Shiv Nadar Foundation collaborated with SHIKSHA Foundation and decided to open up two Vidyagyan Schools in Uttar Pradesh. These schools offered scholarships to over 200 students belonging to more than fifty districts of Uttar Pradesh. In February 2011, Shiv Nadar donated computer hardware worth Rs. 80 lakhs to his old school Town Higher Secondary School. Since the day it was founded, Shiv Nadar has donated almost $1 billion to the Shiv Nadar Foundation.
Shiv Nadar and his daughter, Roshni Nadar handing over a cheque for the Prime Minister Relief Fund
Net Worth
According to Forbes Magazine, Shiv Nadar has a net worth of $28.9 billion, making him the third richest man in India, and 71st in the world. [3]
Facts & Trivia
- Shiv Nadar had spent the majority of his schooling studying in the Tamil language, and he started speaking in English at the age of twenty-two. In college, their teachers used to take their English classes in Tamil, and on weekends, they would show an English movie in college. Nadar would often go to a cinema hall with his friend to watch English movies.
- In 2005, Shiv Nadar was selected as a member of the executive board in the Indian School of Business.
- Kiran Nadar is an avid art collector and she has showcased all her art collection in two different private museums in Delhi.
Kiran Nadar with a sculpture at her art museum in Delhi
- On the occasion of the 150th convocation of the University of Madras in 2007, Shiv Nadar was honoured with an honourary doctorate degree along with nine other eminent people by the university.
- In 2008, Shiv Nadar received the Padma Bhushan award by the then President of India Smt. Pratibha Patil for his remarkable work in the field of trade and education development.
Shiv Nadar receiving the Padma Bhushan from then President of India Pratibha Patil
- Shiv Nadar made it to the Forbes list of ’48 Heroes of Philanthropy’ from the Asia Pacific region. In 2015, he was a part of ‘The Outstanding Philanthropist of the Year’ list curated by Forbes International.
- Shiv Nadar received the BNP Paribas Grand Prize for Individual Philanthropy in 2013 for the Shiv Nadar Foundation and the milestones he had achieved with the foundation.
Shiv Nadar with the BNP Paribas Grand Prize for Individual Philanthropy
- HCL launched the first 8-bit processor computer ‘HCL 8C’ and it was available at a price of Rs. 300,000. At this point in the market, IBM was offering commercial and industrial computers for Rs. 500,000 per year.
- Shiv Nadar topped Hurun India’s philanthropy list in 2016 and in 2019.
- In July 2020, Shiv Nadar appointed his daughter Roshni Nadar Malhotra as the new chairperson of HCL Technologies as he stepped down from his position. However, Shiv Nadar maintained his position as the managing director and the chief strategy officer for the company.
Shiv Nadar and his daughter, Roshni Nadar during a conference
- In July 2021, Shiv Nadar decided to devote all his time to philanthropy and stepped down as the managing director of HCL Technologies. He will serve as the chairman emeritus and strategic advisor of the firm.
