Meet Roshni Nadar, First Indian In Top 10 Richest Women Worldwide

Roshni Nadar Malhotra, the chairperson of HCL Technologies, has been ranked fifth among the world's wealthiest women in the Hurun Global Rich List 2025. She is the first Indian to make it to the top 10 in the list. Boasting a net worth of over ₹35 crore, she has maintained her title as one of the richest women in India. She climbed the ranking following a strategic succession move by HCL founder and her father, Shiv Nadar, who transferred a 47% stake in the company to her. 

Who is Roshni Nadar Malhotra?

Roshni Nadar Malhotra is the Chairperson of HCL Technologies. She is also the CEO of HCL Corporation. She is responsible for all strategic decisions for the $9.9 billion technology company.

She is also a trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation, which is focused on education and has established some of India's top colleges and schools. Since its establishment, the foundation has spent over $1.1 billion on organisations that foster national development and transformative leadership. The foundation also runs Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering in Chennai.

As per the reports, she is also the founder and trustee of The Habitats Trust, a foundation working towards protecting habitats and their indigenous species. As part of its mission, the foundation aims to protect India's natural habitats and indigenous species by partnering with multiple stakeholders and cooperating with them at every level to create and conserve sustainable ecosystems.

In addition, Roshni is the founder and leader of VidyaGyan, a leadership academy for economically underprivileged, meritorious rural students from Uttar Pradesh.

Early Life

She is the daughter of Shiv Nadar, who founded HCL in the mid-1970s, and the company became a central player in India's rise as an IT hub in 1976.

Roshni was brought up in Delhi, where she attended Vasant Valley School. She graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in the US with a major in Communication and a focus on Radio/TV/Film. Before joining HCL, Malhotra worked as a news producer and earned her Master's in Business Administration (MBA), having a focus on Social Enterprise Management and Strategy from the Kellogg School of Management.

In October 2008, Roshni returned from the US and joined HCL Corporation before becoming an executive director and CEO. In July 2009, she was promoted to executive director and CEO of HCL Corporation within a year of joining the company. In July 2020, she was promoted to the Chairperson of HCL after her father stepped down from the position.

In 2018, Roshni produced a children’s film, Halkaa, that was directed by the National Awardee Nila Madhab Panda. The movie is based on the unique journey of a slum child battling the issue of open defecation. Since 2019, she has also been producing a TV series for Animal Planet or Discovery Channel based on the most endangered species in India - On The Brink.

She also enjoys travelling, yoga, and classical music. She married Shikhar Malhotra, who is the vice chairman of HCL Healthcare, in 2010, and they have two sons.