Philanthropy isn’t a fad for Shiv Nadar. The founder and chairman of HCL Technologies, an IT conglomerate, has been India's top philanthropist for four out of the last five years, giving away $320 million in 2025. In total, Nadar, 80, has given $1.7 billion toward a network of institutions all designed to outlast him: universities, museums, and healthcare providers. 

His support for education includes VidyaGyan, a pair of boarding schools that scour 75 districts of rural Uttar Pradesh for gifted children of farmers and laborers, educating over 2,000 students for free since 2009. In February, two VidyaGyan graduates enrolled at Illinois Tech, making them the first from their districts to pursue higher education in the U.S. 
Nadar, India’s fifth richest person, has dubbed his approach “creative philanthropy”—building institutions with transparent governance, publishing annual reports, and disclosing financials. “Education can be transformative and is the key to social and economic progress,” Nadar said in a 2023 interview with India’s The Economic Times. “It has the full potential to empower individuals and communities and to create a better future.”