Nandan Nilekani

Nandan Nilekani helped build Infosys into a global software giant. He then gave a billion Indians a digital identity through Aadhaar. In 2026, he’s been asked to fix India’s exam system too.

From Software to Identity to Exams

IndEco0163

1981

Co-founds Infosys

With N.R. Narayana Murthy and five others

2002–07

Serves as Infosys CEO

Revenue grows sixfold, to ~$3 billion

2009–14

Founding Chairman, UIDAI

Aadhaar enrols 600M+ Indians

26 Jul 2026

Heads Exam Reform Task Force

Named by PM Modi, post-NEET leak row

A recurring pattern: build a large technical system, then get called back to fix another one — software, then identity, now exams.

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📑 Contents

1Timeline
2Must Know
3Good to Know
4Current Affairs
5Test Yourself
6Great to Know

Timeline

2 June 1955: Born in Bengaluru, and raised in Sirsi, Karnataka.
1978: Graduates from IIT Bombay with a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering. Joins Patni Computer Systems.
1981: Co-founds Infosys, with N.R. Narayana Murthy and five other colleagues.
2002–2007: Serves as Infosys CEO. Revenue grows sixfold, to nearly $3 billion, during his tenure.
2006: Receives the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian award.
2008: Publishes his book, Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation.
June 2009: Appointed founding Chairman of the UIDAI, at the rank of a Cabinet Minister.
2014: Steps down from UIDAI to contest the Bangalore South Lok Sabha seat. Loses to the BJP’s Ananth Kumar.
26 July 2026: Named to head a task force on reforming India’s public examination system.

Must Know

Nandan Nilekani co-founded Infosys in 1981, along with N.R. Narayana Murthy and five other colleagues.
He served as Infosys CEO from 2002 to 2007. He is now the company’s non-executive Chairman.
He was the founding Chairman of the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India), at the rank of a Cabinet Minister, from 2009 to 2014.
Under his leadership, Aadhaar enrolled over 600 million Indians by 2014, at more than 25,000 enrolment centres.
In 2026, he was named to head a government task force on reforming India’s public examination system.

Good to Know

Nilekani grew up in a Konkani-speaking family in Sirsi, a small town in Karnataka.
He studied Electrical Engineering at IIT Bombay, graduating in 1978, and began his career at Patni Computer Systems in Mumbai the same year.
He received the Padma Bhushan in 2006. TIME magazine also named him one of the world’s 100 most influential people, in both 2006 and 2009.
His 2008 book, Imagining India, was widely praised, including by global figures like Bill Gates, as a major work on India’s development.
After leaving UIDAI in 2014, he stepped into electoral politics, contesting the Bangalore South seat as a Congress candidate, but lost.

Current Affairs

26 July 2026: Prime Minister Modi announces a high-powered task force, headed by Nilekani, on examination reform.
The task force’s job is to make India’s public examination system leak-proof and more transparent, with a particular focus on the National Testing Agency.
It follows the May 2026 NEET-UG paper leak controversy, and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation on 25 July 2026, amid youth-led protests.
Other task force members include S. Somanath (former ISRO Chairman), Tapan Deka (former Intelligence Bureau Director), and V. Kamakoti (IIT Madras Director).

Test Yourself

Great to Know

Nilekani’s career pairs well with his Infosys co-founder’s. See IndEco0144 — N.R. Narayana Murthy for the other half of that founding story.
The exam-reform task force ties directly into recent legal changes on exam integrity. See CA0071 — Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Act, 2026.
Nilekani’s career shows a repeated pattern: building large-scale technical systems, then being called back into public life to fix a different kind of large-scale system, whether identity, or now, examinations.

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