Roshni Nadar

I personally think that people who are inheriting the wealth must have an agreement on how that wealth will flow from generation to generation, how they would like to spend it, and have similar philosophies around philanthropy to ensure continuity and scaling up.

The largest expense in our philanthropy is capital expenditure because we are building these institutions. This institution-building idea stems from my father because he has the experience of building a company from scratch.

My job is to look after all our investments and ensure that we grow.

It was only when I started handling Treasury Operations that I realised all of a sudden just how much wealth we have. That is a huge responsibility, so I decided to get on with it and learn how to manage it, because I am a single child and have no siblings to share the responsibility with.

As a first-generation inheritor, the first mandate is to preserve our family wealth and hopefully increase it.

When we look at really good high-performing companies abroad, they are always at the back of an extremely high-performing board, and that is something which is very lacking in this country.

Our aim is to set some kind of benchmark and standards for transparency and governance in private philanthropy.

Along with my dad, my mother's pretty high up there. She's a star! Her interests are so diverse - she's an art collector and a sports enthusiast.

Most of India is rural; there is a huge population in India not being tapped for their excellence. They have no access to great universities.

Look at the exposure I am getting, and look at what I am learning from people at literally an arm's length. I am truly privileged to have that experience and even sitting and working with people who I have grown up with. You learn a lot from their experiences.

I am the CEO of HCL Corporation, and, of course, a large part of my time does get spent in HCL Corporation, whether it is in actively managing our investments or perhaps even the governance and accountability and really seeing the strategic direction forward for HCL Corporation.

I did film and television, not having worked in banking or consulting, a very different stream. So I said, 'I'll go to business school, and it will help me decide more on what I want to do.'