Rajendra Singh Pawar


Rajendra Singh Pawar is an Indian businessman and the chairman of NIIT, which he co-founded along with Vijay K. Thadani. He also founded NIIT University, which is a not-for-profit university in Neemrana, in 2009.

Early life and education

Pawar was born on 6 March 1951 in Jammu in a Dogra Rajput family. He completed his schooling from Scindia School in Gwalior. He graduated from the IIT, Delhi in 1972 and was awarded an Honorary Doctoral Degree by the Rajiv Gandhi Technical University in 2005.

Career

Pawar founded NIIT Limited in 1981 with Vijay Thadani in 1981 with investment from Shiv Nadar.
Pawar is a member of the National Task Force on Information Technology and Software Development. He heads the Quality Committees of various Industry bodies, including the South African President's International Advisory Council on Information Society.
He has led several ICT industry initiatives and played a significant part in shaping the IT policies of the Government of India. Pawar has worked closely with the country's educational institutions. He is on the Board of Governors of India's first global business school, the Indian School of Business; and the Scindia School.

Personal life

His wife, Neeti Pawar, is a philanthropist. Pawar has three children, a son Udai Pawar, who worked for Microsoft, and two daughters Urvashi and Unnati

Awards and honours

Pawar was awarded Padma Bhushan by the President of India in 2011.