Quotes from Shiv Nadar

There is only one entity which I built, which is HCL. And the legacy which I want to leave behind that is in my name. There is only one thing which bears my name in the doorsteps - that is only the University and the foundation. And that legacy will not have a price tag.

Education is taken for granted. Teaching shops are different from building character.

I admire companies that give back to communities. It is an absolute essential for organizations to watch, mitigate, and improve their impact on the environment, people, communities, their health and overall well-being. But this is a necessary condition, not a sufficient condition.

One time, the teacher was the storehouse of knowledge. That will no longer be so. So what would a teacher do? A very good teacher will play the role of augmenter. Also, the teacher will be located anywhere and helping students.

When you live away from your family, your friends and faculty become your family.

I have talked about the 'fractal organization'. Those smaller pieces should innovate and lead the rest of the organization. There will be parts that will be thinking about technologies of the future, and you need to nourish them.

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.

The FM proposed to set up a Credit Guarantee Fund to ensure better flow of funds to students.

Re-skilling has to be much wider with a strong foundation.

The Bharat Ram family was into philanthropy a way earlier. They build institutes such as Shri Ram College of Commerce, Lady Shri Ram College, and Shri Ram Schools. They are very inspiring.

A founder can carry an institution only so far, and then others have to step in, even the alumni. That's how an institution becomes one.

It is good to start as young as you can. What is more important is to carve out your vision and assess your readiness to start giving. Commitment and purpose are core to giving.

The government of India is consistently very advanced. When the world was hesitant on UNIX, we were the first to move in; the RBI said that all banks will implement on UNIX. It worked!

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.

In South, getting admission in SSN is not possible just because someone is my relative. One of the ministers said SSN is the only institution where I can't get a seat for anyone. That's true of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi governments, too.

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.

Education is and will be the most powerful tool for individual and social change, and we must do all that it takes to facilitate it.

The anti-Hindi agitation changed the entire face of Tamil Nadu with a local party emerging on the top, relegating the Congress.

In philanthropy, you have to take the attitude of a mother... You have to be patient, and we have been very patient for a long time.

Since its inception, HCL's core focus area has been technology and product development, and hence, we continued to remain in the high end of technology throughout the '90s.

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

It's rare to find an Indian who speaks Chinese. It's rare to find a Chinese who can speak any of the Indian languages. Neither of them at the trading level - I want to repeat this, at the trading level - can speak English, either.

A residential school also takes cares of the problem of malnourishment and interaction with their peers, and their teachers help build the qualities of a leader.

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.