Indian Philanthropists: Know about Shiv Nadar, country’s biggest donor

Mumbai: Shiv Nadar, the founder and chairman of HCL Technologies and chairman of the Shiv Nadar Foundation, has once again emerged as India’s most generous philanthropist. According to the EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2025, Nadar and his family donated a total of Rs 2,708 crore in the last year and thus became the biggest philanthropist of India. That means Nadar donated an average of Rs 7.4 crore daily last year. This is the fourth time Nadar and his family have topped the list in five years. He has been declared as the biggest philanthropist of India in the EdelGive-Hurun India Philanthropy List 2025. Shiv Nadar: A Brief Profile Shiv Nadar was born on 14 July 1945 in Moolaipozhi village, Madras Presidency (present day Thoothukudi district, Tamil Nadu). His parents were Sivasubramaniya Nadar and Vamasundari Devi. Shiv Nadar received a pre-university degree in the American College, Madurai and a degree in Electrical Engineering from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore in 1967. Nadar began his career at Walchand group's Cooper Engineering Ltd. in Pune in 1967 but soon gave it up to begin his own venture in partnerships. The initial enterprise that Nadar and his partners began was Microcomp. This company that focused on selling teledigital calculators in the Indian market. HCL Tech In 1976 Nadar founded HCL and transformed the IT hardware company into an IT enterprise over the next three decades. [caption id="attachment_169900" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] HCLTech Headquarters Noida[/caption] 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 in revenue in the first year and continued to address the Singapore operations. Since the mid-1990s he has focused his efforts on developing the educational system of India through the Shiv Nadar Foundation. His contributions were mainly directed towards education through the Shiv Nadar Foundation. The Foundation runs institutions such as Shiv Nadar University and VidyaGyan schools for underprivileged students. In 2008, Nadar was awarded the Padma Bhushan for his efforts in the IT industry. In Aug 2020, Nadar handed over to his daughter Roshni Nadar, who became the first woman chair of a listed Indian IT company. In July 2021, Nadar also stepped down as Managing Director of HCL Technologies, and was succeeded by C Vijayakumar, HCL Tech CEO, for a five-year term. In October 2021, he was ranked by Forbes magazine as the third richest person in India.