Of all the founders of India's information-technology industry, none has built a company quite as singular — or kept a family business quite as quietly in the hands of one daughter — as Shiv Nadar. The Tamil Nadu-born son of a state-government clerk who in 1976 put together a group of six engineers in a small Delhi garage to start what would become HCL Technologies, today the third-largest Indian IT-services company, is one of India's most consequential industrial pioneers. In 2020, he handed over the chairmanship of HCL Tech to his only child, his daughter Roshni Nadar Malhotra — making her the first woman to chair a listed Indian IT company. Behind every product launch sits a deeply private Tamil Brahmin family — a father who worked in the Tamil Nadu government, a homemaker mother, a sister, a Karnataka-born wife who has built one of India's most respected modern-art collections, and a daughter who now leads the company.

The Family's Roots: The Tamil Nadar Community

The Nadar family belongs to the Nadar community of southern Tamil Nadu — a community that has, over the twentieth century, produced an outsized number of South Indian business and political figures. The family's ancestral roots are in the Tiruchendur area of Tamil Nadu.

Shiv himself was born in the village of Moolaipozhi, in Tuticorin (Thoothukudi) district of Tamil Nadu, on 14 July 1945.

His Father: Shri Sivasubramaniya Nadar

Shri Sivasubramaniya Nadar worked in the Tamil Nadu state government in a clerical and administrative role. He raised his family in a modest household in southern Tamil Nadu. He died when Shiv was a young man.

His Mother: Vamasundari Devi

Vamasundari Devi was a homemaker who raised Shiv and his younger siblings in the family home. She has lived to see her son's company become one of India's most valuable, and the family's main school in Chennai — the SSN College of Engineering — was named in honour of her late husband.

His Path to HCL

Shiv was educated at the Town Higher Secondary School, Kumbakonam, and then at the PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, where he earned a degree in electrical and electronics engineering in 1966. After graduation he joined Cooper Engineering in Pune, and then in 1976, at the age of 31, founded Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL) with five colleagues — Arjun Malhotra, Subhash Arora, Yogesh Vaidya, S Raman, and D S Puri — in a small Delhi office, with seed capital of around ₹187,000.

In the years before mainstream Indian IT services existed, HCL grew through hardware manufacturing, then software development, then global IT services.

His Wife: Kiran Nadar — The Art Collector

Kiran Nadar, born 1951 in Karnataka, met Shiv through a family connection in Delhi. They married in 1971, five years before HCL was founded. Kiran has built her own internationally respected career as a contemporary-art collector and museum founder. In 2010 she founded the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) in Delhi's Saket area — one of India's largest privately-funded contemporary-art museums, with a permanent collection that includes major works by V.S. Gaitonde, M.F. Husain, Tyeb Mehta, Bharti Kher, and Subodh Gupta.

She is also a serious bridge player who has won multiple international bridge tournaments, including a gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games for the Indian bridge team.

Their Daughter: Roshni Nadar Malhotra

Shiv and Kiran have one daughter, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, born 1981. She is, by any measure, one of the most powerful women in Indian business.

Roshni studied at Northwestern University (Communication, with a minor in radio, television, and film), worked in television briefly, then earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. She joined HCL in 2009 as Executive Director and CEO of HCL Corporation, became Vice-Chairperson of HCL Technologies in 2013, and was named Chairperson of HCL Technologies on 17 July 2020 — succeeding her father.

She married Shikhar Malhotra, the Vice-Chairman of HCL Healthcare, in 2010. Together they have two sons: Armaan Malhotra and Jahaan Malhotra.

The Nadar Family Tree at a Glance

Community / Origins

  • Nadar community of southern Tamil Nadu
  • Ancestral village: Moolaipozhi, Tuticorin district

Parents

  • Father: Shri Sivasubramaniya Nadar — Tamil Nadu government clerk
  • Mother: Vamasundari Devi — homemaker

Shiv Nadar

  • Born 14 July 1945, Moolaipozhi, Tamil Nadu
  • Town Higher Secondary School, Kumbakonam
  • PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore (Electrical & Electronics Engineering, 1966)
  • Joined Cooper Engineering, Pune (1967)
  • Founded HCL (Hindustan Computers Limited) on 11 August 1976 in Delhi
  • Chairman, HCL Technologies (1976 – July 2020)
  • Padma Bhushan (2008)
  • Founder, Shiv Nadar Foundation (1994)

Wife: Kiran Nadar

  • Born 1951, Karnataka
  • Founder, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) (2010)
  • International bridge player; 2018 Asian Games team gold (bridge)
  • Married Shiv in 1971

Children

  • Roshni Nadar Malhotra (b. 1981) — Chairperson, HCL Technologies (since 17 July 2020)
    • Husband: Shikhar Malhotra, Vice-Chairman HCL Healthcare; married 2010
    • Sons: Armaan Malhotra and Jahaan Malhotra

The Foundation and the Education Mission

In 1994, Shiv founded the Shiv Nadar Foundation, the philanthropic arm of his life's work, focused entirely on transformational education in India. The foundation has, over thirty years, built and operates:

  • SSN College of Engineering (Chennai, founded 1996; named after his late father)
  • Shiv Nadar University (Delhi NCR, founded 2011)
  • Shiv Nadar School chain
  • VidyaGyan Schools for talented rural students in Uttar Pradesh
  • Shiksha Initiative for primary education

He has signed The Giving Pledge and has committed the substantial majority of his personal wealth to the foundation.

What the Nadar Family Story Teaches Us

The Shiv Nadar story is the modern Tamil middle-class family story written at the largest possible educational scale. A Tamil-government-clerk father. A homemaker mother whose name now lives in a Chennai engineering college. A wife who has built one of India's most respected art museums. A daughter who became the first woman to chair a listed Indian IT company. Two grandsons growing up at the intersection of HCL and the Malhotra family's healthcare business.

For every family — large or small, famous or otherwise — the Nadar story carries the same lesson. The names of grandparents are not just genealogical detail — they can be the names of the institutions a family builds. The mother who never went to college has, in this case, an engineering college named in her honour. Write down the names of your grandparents. One day, in a way you cannot predict, those names may carry forward in a way you cannot now imagine.

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