SHIV NADAR

My daughter has no interest in succeeding me in the business. She is going towards social entrepreneurship, an area she is interested in.

If you get to think of sharing wealth with people who need it and the purposes that need it, it gives a very different sense of satisfaction. I think I can build an institution which is very unlike the Gates' foundation. Gates' foundation is totally project-driven, that will serve a specific purpose and then self-destruct.

The IP is a completely different side of the IT, and that is what we want Vijayawada for.

When you are running a business, there is a constant need to reinvent oneself. One should have the foresight to stay ahead in times of rapid change and rid ourselves of stickiness in any form in the business.

Buffett gave significant portions of his wealth to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Buffett made money for 50 years before he donated.

Any organisation has to go through at least one depression to see how it survives, and a normal economic cycle takes seven years.

The future consists of cross specialisation; that is how university systems abroad have evolved.

The need is schools dedicated exclusively to the rural segment. If we have a child from a village and a city studying in the same class room, the former is bound to lag behind because children from the urban areas have a better start.

I firmly believe that philanthropy is most effective and outcome-oriented when you ensure that your pledge actually gets spent.

If you have excellent people, then you have to give them the power.

In large companies, the CEO is very distant from operations.

Our belief is that aspirations, meritocracy, and a world class institution are the three ingredients our country needs.

Research is creation of knowledge which leads to new and efficient solutions for the society. Shiv Nadar University, therefore, believes in being at the forefront of research. To create new knowledge, one needs to solve open-ended problems, which basically make one think on one's own.

Though easy to define, it is important to understand the significance of philanthropy. I believe it is really a state of mind: where one feels empowered and equipped to fill the huge gaps in the existing system.

Education is a very large area, and we have our hands full. For example, SSN has to become a university; we have to keep adding departments like it is with universities in the U.S.

Any institutions' alumni are key to its growth. We are focused on giving a global experience to our students.

I was born in Tamil Nadu. I built HCL in UP. The first computers of the world were built in UP, and the UP government has supported us all through.

My daughter is very happy doing philanthropy, especially in the schools.

Since Graham Bell came up with telephony, it took 100 years for the way the technology has impacted our lives, the way we perceive the world.

Each quarter, Indian IT firms publish their results, and these are broadcast on CNBC. From the comfort of their boardrooms, executives say how many new employees have been added, how many more Fortune 500 companies have been signed up as clients, how many million-dollar companies were added, and so on.

A 5-acre school each in Noida and Gurgaon is what we have; it costs Rs. 50 crore to buy the land and another Rs. 50 crore to build the property. That's the capital cost alone.

Union Budget 2012 has supported industry's long time demand to improve the provision and standards of education in the country.

I was the seventh child in a family of eight siblings. We lost our father very young, and my mother had pretty much single-handedly brought us up.

HCL is a corporation. It is for profits. A corporation stands for its shareholders, its profits, its employees, its discoveries, and its customers.

The 1980s were fantastic. This was a time when we were at the peak of our creative work. The question of whether we would exist or not - something which everybody used to ask, including ourselves - stopped. Profits kept pace with growth requirements. HCL had credibility - that was the biggest barrier we had to break.