Page 13 - Seniorstoday January 2024 Issue
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paste, indifference, are characteristics of 20 Nandan Nilekani, 68, Entrepreneur
a society that has not made progress. And Long before Aadhaar,
this country will take thousands of years Nilekani, who was
to change,” he remarked with sadness, in a then Co-founder, CEO,
2020 newspaper interview. president and managing
Last year, Murthy sparked a fierce director of Infosys, was
debate in Parliament, after he said India’s selling a vision of India
productivity was the lowest in the world to the world that today is much more
and that youth should work 70 hours apparent to many.
a week if they wanted to compete with Nilekani has risen to become the best-
countries like China. Coming from a man known figure among a small elite who
who himself had put in the hours, through straddled private enterprise and public
his belief of hard work and effort effect service to wow the world with what was
change and greatness. possible in India.
A philanthropist who focuses on With the AI revolution in full throttle,
solutions for the betterment of society, he Nilekani’s opinion is that all AI should
is in no small way aided by his wife, Sudha be use-case-led which can be amplified to
Murthy who is equally responsible, not make the lives of common people better.
just for the success of Infosys, additionally “With AI coming along, it is giving us
for single-handedly evangelising the new capabilities. One is demystifying
company’s commitment to corporate social complexity. In other words, how do you
responsibility. make sure that people have the right
information and ideas at the right time
19 Cyrus Poonawalla, 83, Industrialist at their fingertips,” Nilekani said. “AI’s
Cyrus S. Poonawalla ability to reduce this complexity and
is chairman and therefore make knowledge more accessible
managing director of for everyone will ultimately lead to a
the Cyrus Poonawalla much smoother transition to digital public
Group, which includes infrastructure.”
the Serum Institute of Most recently, Nandan has co-founded
India, the largest vaccine manufacturer and is the Chairman of EkStep, a not-for-
in the world and Poonawalla Fincorp, an profit effort to create a learner centric,
emerging player in the financial space in technology-based platform to improve
India. basic literacy and numeracy for millions of
In 2023, he ranked #6 on Forbes India children.
rich list with a net worth of $23.8 billion. An author of bestselling books, Nilekani’s
He was numero uno in Hurun Global voice is much respected across the nation
Healthcare Rich List 2023. on business and social issues. A true
In recent times, his son and CEO of the visionary of our times, India is lucky to
company Adar is more the face and voice of have not lost him to foreign shores.
SII, Senior Poonawalla was honoured with
the Padma Bhushan in 2022 for his lifetime 21 Rajnikanth, 73, Actor
of work in the biotech space. Shivajirao Gaekwad aka Rajnikanth was
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #55 | JANUARY 2024 13
