Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani recently appeared on a podcast episode with Zerodha CEO Nikhil Kamath, where he discussed Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in India, including Aadhaar, BHIM, and DigiLocker. He also revealed how he met his wife, Rohini Nilekani, over 40 years ago.
Nandan and Rohini met at a quiz competition hosted by Rohini’s college when he was studying at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay.
“I met Rohini because she was in Elphinstone College. I was in IIT. We had a quiz competition. So, I was representing IIT in the quiz and the quiz was in Elphinstone College," Nandan recalled on Kamath’s WTF podcast.
He added, “Obviously, we won the quiz… That’s how I met her way back in 1977," he added.
When Kamath asked if Rohini was the more outspoken of the two, Nandan agreed, describing her as “more spontaneous, more emotional and even mercurial," compared to his own personality. “I’m the more sedate, boring type," he admitted.
Kamath then remarked on Rohini’s tendency to express her thoughts “impulsively", a trait Nandan agreed with.
Nandan also revealed that his wife, who is a former journalist, is an “environmental philanthropist": “Environment is a big theme for her philanthropy. She is the biggest, probably, the only environmental philanthropist in India now."
Watch the interview here:
Rohini and Nandan have two children, Nihar and Janhavi, both of whom earned their undergraduate degrees from Yale University. According to Forbes, his net worth is $3.7 billion (approximately Rs 307 billion).
In March 2014, Nilekani joined the Indian National Congress (INC) and contested the Lok Sabha election from the Bangalore South constituency. He faced Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Ananth Kumar and lost by a margin of 2,28,575 votes. Notably, Nilekani was the wealthiest candidate in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
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