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“I was more impacted by what you
can do, if you do well in education.” Shiv Nadar, Founder and Chairman of HCL
and head of Shiv Nadar Foundation explains why he had set up SSN College of
Engineering near Chennai in 1996. He has supported 6000 students with over Rs.
65 Crores in scholarships. The doors of the institution are open to deserving school
students from rural areas. Janu, who graduated from SSN last year and now
working with a multinational company, said she passed out of a government
school 150 km from Chennai, a school that did not have teachers for half a
dozen subjects.
“I needed a push, I needed some
miracle.” recalls Prashant Kumar Dixit, then a school student in rural Uttar
Pradesh, who was waiting for a break. Now a second year Engineering student in
SSN College, Dikshit’s miracle came in the form of a seven year stint in Vidya
Gyan that mentors rural school students with potential to excel through two
leadership academies. Vidya Gyan is one of the numerous philanthropic
initiatives of Shiv Nadar. Last year alone he has given away Rs.650 Crores to
various charitable efforts.
Shiv Nadar does not believe in
setting targets for charity, but gets done what needs to be done. He has no
annual targets either. According to him charity is not about earning but the
heart to give. He asserts, “There are no targets for charity, one only needs a
heart to give.”
After taking a step away from
running HCL, Shiv Nadar spends most of his time on his philanthropic
activities. HCL Samuday, is a five year project where he is focusing on
building two model clusters of villages “that are close to perfection” in
Hardoi District, Uttar Pradesh, India. A similar effort is also on in
Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India with the support of the government.
(Based on an article in ‘BusinessLine’
from Thiruvananthapuram on 02082017)
