Shiv Nadar was born on July 14, 1945, in Moolaipozhi, Tamil Nadu State. He completed his Engineering in Electrical from PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore.
Nadar's education was primarily in the Tamil language, and he didn't start speaking much English until age 22. He is nicknamed as 'Magus', which means wizard in Persian.
In 1975, Nadar quit a high-paying job with the Delhi Cloth Mills and pooled in Rs 1.87 lakh along with his six colleagues and started Microcomp in a small room.
HCL was started in 1976 and it entered the Rs 10,000 crore revenue club in 20 years from its founding. It is India's third-largest software services provider by market cap.
HCL Technologies employs 150,000 people in 49 countries worldwide, hire high school grads and trains them on the job.
In 2008, Nadar was awarded the Padma Bhushan for his innovative role in India's IT sector and philanthropy.
Shiv Nadar's wife Kiran is an Asian Games medalist and a well-recognised Bridge player. She is an avid art collector and owns two private art museums in Delhi-NCR.
His only sibling Ramanichandran Nadar is a Tamil novelist and the best-selling author in the Tamil language.
Shiv Nadar founded SSN Institutions & Shiv Nadar University. Scholarships are offered to outstanding performers in Science & Technology.