Shiv Nadar is an Indian billionaire industrialist and philanthropist. He is the founder and chairman of HCL Technologies Limited and the Shiv Nadar Foundation. Nadar founded HCL in the mid-1970s and transformed the IT hardware company into an IT enterprise over the next three decades by constantly reinventing his company's focus. In 2008, Nadar was awarded Padma Bhushan for his efforts in the IT industry. Nadar, nicknamed by friends as Magus, since the mid-1990s has focused his efforts on developing the educational system of India through the Shiv Nadar Foundation. Ramanichandran, a prolific Tamil romance novelist is his cousin.
Nadar began his career at Walchand group's College of Engineering, Pune in 1967. he soon gave it up to begin his own venture, in partnerships with several friends and colleagues. These partners were Ajai Chowdhry, Arjun Malhotra, Subhash Arora, Yogesh Vaidya, S. Raman, Mahendra Pratap and DS Puri. The initial enterprise which Nadar and his partners began was Microcomp, a company which focused on selling teledigital calculators in the Indian market. HCL was founded in 1976, with an investment of Rs. 187,000. In 1980, HCL ventured into the international market with the opening of Far East Computers in Singapore to sell IT hardware. The venture reported Rs 1 million revenue in the first year and continued to address the Singapore operations. Nadar remained the largest shareholder without retaining any management control.
Focus on education and healthcare
In 1996, Nadar founded SSN College of Engineering in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in the name of his father, Sivasubramaniya Nadar. Nadar took an active role in the college activities, including the gifting of Rs. 1 million worth of HCL shares to the college. In 2006, Nadar announced that the college will promote research apart from ensuring that students benefit from foreign university tie-ups. Nadar joined the executive board of Indian School of Business in 2005. In March 2008, Nadar's SSN Trust announced the setting up of two Vidyagyan schools in UP for rural students, where free scholarship will be provided for 200 students from 50 districts of Uttar Pradesh. He visited Town Higher Secondary School in February 2011 and donated computers and other equipment worth Rs. 80 lakhs. He served as chairman of the board of governors, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, a technical institute until 2014.
Personal life
His only daughter Roshni Nadar is now chairman of HCL.
Awards and accolades
In 2008, the government of India awarded Nadar with a Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award, for his contribution to the IT industry. In 2007, Madras University awarded him an honorary doctorate degree. Nadar was also recognised as E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year 2007. In 1995 he became the Dataquest IT Man of the year. the In 2005 he was bestowed with CNBC Business Excellence Award. In 2006 he received an honorary fellowship from the All India Management Association. In 2011 he was counted amongst Forbes 48 Heroes of Philanthropy in Asia Pacific. In 2010 he received the Dataquest Lifetime Achievement Award. In April 2017, India Today magazine ranked Nadar #16th in India's 50 most powerful people of 2017 list. Nadar has committed more than $1 billion to philanthropy.
