Government, in its ultimate form, is the biggest philanthropher based in the world. And Bill Gates also said that he could do a small part of what the government can do, which is business philanthropy, equalling people and making sure there is inclusiveness.
I was a very good student. But I didn't have the latitude to study more. I was never allowed to do anything cross-disciplinary. Why can't an engineering student learn physics?
My daughter has no interest in succeeding me in the business. She is going towards social entrepreneurship, an area she is interested in.
We invited HP executives to participate in the management and in the board. HCL had this concept of corporate officers since inception in 1999. We had a remuneration committee. Now everyone is talking about nomination and remuneration committee. We had this from 1999.
India's connection with philanthropy didn't begin with western influences. The connection with philanthropy is age-old and ingrained in our value systems.
Supposing I write out a cheque for a billion dollars to the foundation, does it mean anything? There must be evidence of philanthropy. Otherwise, I'm sitting with that money, earning interest exactly the way in my holding company.
Our belief is that aspirations, meritocracy, and a world class institution are the three ingredients our country needs.
The moment I write out a cheque, it's an asset I have written off.
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.
After Independence, there were periods of very high taxation. So you didn't create wealth, how will you distribute it? When was the first time capital gains tax was introduced? It was 1992 March. Till then, everything was taxed one way.
Any organisation has to go through at least one depression to see how it survives, and a normal economic cycle takes seven years.
I would like to share something that is being done extremely well by Bill Gates through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation is only going to address areas which are seen by Bill or Melinda as ills of the world. The foundation has no perpetuity.
Shiv Nadar University was established in 2011, and our first batch graduated in 2015. The first batch mostly had engineering courses and a B.Sc. programme in Mathematics.
My student days in PSG saw three Prime Ministers, two wars, taught us courage, resilience, leadership and optimism.
My colleagues and I were engineers who worked for DCM's calculator division. These electronic calculators used digital integrated circuits, and then they started using chips. The advanced versions of those chips were used for programmable calculators, which were the forerunners of PCs.
Buffett gave significant portions of his wealth to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Buffett made money for 50 years before he donated.
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.
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.
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.
When you take the best of universities in the world, all of them have research and education contiguous; the person who teaches you could be a Nobel laureate. Some subjects are at the tri-junction of many subjects put together.
