Nandan Nilekani Donates $38.5 Million to Former University for Artificial Intelligence Research
Nandan Nilekani, the billionaire co-founder of Infosys Ltd., has pledged to donate $38.5 million to the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, his former school. This donation is one of the largest gifts made by an alumnus to an educational institution in India.
The grant brings total donations to the technologist’s school to 4 billion rupees ($49 million) and is intended to promote research in emerging areas and support the deep-tech startup ecosystem, Nilekani’s office said on Tuesday after the two sides signed a memorandum.
Nilekani, who rose to prominence founding IT services pioneer Infosys, joined in 1973 as the country’s most renowned engineering and technology institution. He helped found Infosys in 1981, a few summers after graduating from MIT in India.
“It’s a tribute to a place that has given me so much and a commitment to the students who will shape our world tomorrow,” Nilekani, now chairman of Infosys, said in a statement.
Nilekani and his peers in India’s $245 billion IT outsourcing industry have leaned on education in their philanthropic efforts. In 2019, Wipro Ltd. billionaire Azim Premji donated billions of dollars in company stock to his education-focused philanthropic arm, which runs Premji University. Narayana Murthy, the co-founder of Infosys, donated more than $5 million to Harvard University for the study of India’s literary heritage. And Shiv Nadar, founder of HCL Ltd, donated more than $12 million to a foundation that supports educational initiatives.
IIT Bombay plans to set up centers to help startups in fields such as artificial intelligence, green energy and quantum computing, according to an announcement on Tuesday. It aims to raise $500 million over the next five years, including from alumni, it said.
