Meet IITian recruited by Narayana Murthy whose net worth is Rs 21,453 crore

Nandan Nilekani is one of the top names on the list of Indian entrepreneurs. One of the seven co-founders of the tech giant, Infosys. Nilekani served as the CEO of India's second-largest tech services company between 2002 to 2007 and currently serves in the position of non-executive chairman in the company. 

Nilekani is also referred to as the Chief Architect of Aadhaar and was the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

Who is Nandan Nilekai?

Nikelani hails from a family of Konkani Brahmins. He pursued his initial education at the Bishop Cotton Boy's School and St. Joseph's High School Dharwad, Karnataka and did his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. 

In 1978, Nilekani was working with the Mumbai-based Patni Computer Systems where he met NR Narayana Murthy. Last year, Infosys commemorated the completion of 40 years of leading India into the IT boom. At the ceremony, Murthy recalled the story of hiring Nilekani. 

Even when Nilekani was working as the head of software at Patni Computer Systems (PCS), Murthy did not hesitate to take his 'learnability test'.  Despite getting a perfect 50/50, Murthy was not satisfied. "No I was not satisfied with that," Murthy said. 

Nilekani had to give an IQ test developed by Murthy which Nandan solved in about one and a half minutes.  

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"I had developed an IQ test called matrix rotation, and the really intelligent people did it in about a minute and a half and the reasonable intelligent people did it in 5 minutes and he (Nilekani) did it in about a minute and a half," Murthy said. Nilekani left Infosys in 2009 and was brought back in 2017.

Currently, along with being the non-executive chairman of Infosys, Nilekani is also a member of the board of governors of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and the president of NCAER. 

Nilekani even tried his luck in politics and fought the 2014 Lok Sabha election from the Bangalore South constituency where he did not see much success. Nandan Nilekani's current net worth is Rs 21,453 crore as per Forbes.