Born as the second and last son to Mohan R Nilekani, a manager in Minerva Mills , Nandan Nilekani spent his first 12 years in Bangalore, India.
His father's job was transferable, and he had to move to his uncle's place in Dharwad for his studies.

Being good at his studies, in 1973 he entered the portals of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay without much of a hassle.
One day after graduating in 1978, Nandan walked into the cabin of N. R. Narayana Murthy then head of the software group at the Mumbai-based Patni Computer Systems  to seek a job. Their chemistry clicked and Murthy hired the young engineering graduate right away. Neither realised then that the relationship would last long and get etched in India's corporate annals. Three years later (1981) seven enthusiasts (including Nandan) decided to start their own outfit (Infosys Technologies Ltd) with Murthy in the lead. Their decision rewrote the domestic software industry of India.
He became the chief executive officer (CEO) of Infosys in March 2002. He currently functions as the President, CEO, and Managing Director of the company.
He is a co-founder of India's National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM ). He is also the chairperson of Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF). He has been named one of Asia's Power 25 the most powerful people in business in Asia' by Fortune magazine, 2004.
He is married to Rohini (an English-language writer and novelist) and they have two children daughter Janhavi and son Nihar.
In the past 15 years, India's identity has undergone one of the biggest transformations that any country has ever experienced. He and N.R. Narayana Murthy, Infosys' legendary chairman, have built a great global company from scratch. But the reason Nilekani, 50, is so sought out is that he has a unique ability not simply to program software but also to explain how that program fits into the emerging trends in computing, how those trends will transform the computing business and how that transformation will affect global politics and economics. It was his insight that the global playing field was being "leveled" by technology.
In this era of mounting complexity—with more people, systems and products entwined in a bewildering web of global networks—explaining is an enormously valuable skill. And it explains why, if you sit outside his office for a day, you notice that half the people going in are employees looking for instructions or customers looking for deals; the other half are politicians, journalists and ministers from around the world looking for an explanation of what it all means.