Navya Naveli Nanda, Amitabh Bachchan’s granddaughter, says young people want purpose, not just profit: What daughter of Rs 32,500-crore Escorts Kubota chief Nikhil Nanda says about Gen Z

Navya Naveli Nanda has a simple message about what motivates young people today: making money is no longer enough. She grew up between two of India's most recognisable last names. Now she wants a third identity, one that's entirely her own. Navya Naveli Nanda is 28. She spends her working days not amid film sets or society pages, but around tractor assembly lines and engineering blueprints. Her father, Nikhil Nanda, runs Escorts Kubota, a tractor and engineering giant worth somewhere near Rs 32,500 crore. It's an unlikely landing spot for someone whose grandparents are Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan, two of the most famous faces in Indian cinema.

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But that's rather the point. Speaking recently at the launch of Aparajita, the Hindi edition of former SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya's memoir Indomitable, Nanda opened up about generational shifts, gender, and the peculiar burden of inheriting a household name.

Navya Naveli Nanda: A generation chasing meaning, not just money

Nanda doesn't buy into the usual Gen Z stereotypes, the ones painting her generation as entitled or allergic to hard work. "Young people don't just want profit; they want purpose," she said, describing a cohort hungry to contribute, to society, to women, to themselves.

Bhattacharya, sitting alongside her, pushed back hard against the entitlement narrative too, calling it flatly wrong. Nanda was careful, though, not to frame her generation as uniquely burdened. Technology, she argued, has quietly dissolved plenty of obstacles that older generations wrestled with. It's also created new ones. Artificial intelligence sits at the top of that list, an anxiety she named directly, pointing to job security and the shape of careers to come as genuine unknowns. Even so, she sees something steadying underneath all that uncertainty: a generation anchoring itself in purpose rather than panic.

Why Gen Z is under the spotlight in India

Navya Naveli Nanda's comments come at a time when there is a much bigger debate in India about what Gen Z wants from work, society and the institutions around them.That debate has moved well beyond social media. In recent months, young Indians have taken their concerns to the streets, with Gen Z-led protests at Delhi's Jantar Mantar becoming one of the most visible examples. The demonstrations, which began in June and continued through July, brought students and young people together over examination-related issues, accountability and concerns about their future.

The protests also challenged the familiar stereotype of Gen Z as a generation more interested in smartphones, memes and social media than traditional forms of civic engagement. Young protesters used the same digital culture associated with their generation to organise, communicate and amplify their demands.

That makes Nanda's comments about purpose particularly interesting. Her argument is about careers rather than politics, but the underlying question is similar: what does this generation actually want from the world it is entering? For some, the answer may be better career opportunities and financial security. For others, it could mean social impact, gender equality, fairness or simply having a greater say in decisions that affect their future.

Nanda's view is that money alone does not capture that ambition. “Young people don’t just want profit; they want purpose,” she said.

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On equality: "creating our own blueprint"

The conversation turned, too, to gender. Nanda believes something has genuinely shifted, young men and women increasingly approaching each other as equals, which she says gives young women more room to speak up, to take up space at the table. Old stereotypes haven't vanished, she was quick to add. Structural walls still stand in plenty of places.

What struck a chord was her rejection of a familiar framing, that equality means women racing to catch up with men. "I think it's about creating our own blueprint," she said. Not catching up. Building parallel. She was equally firm that men aren't bystanders in this, as partners, fathers, brothers, they have work to do too.

Living with, and beyond, a famous surname

This is where the conversation got personal. Nanda's maternal side traces to Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan. Her paternal grandparents were industrialist Rajan Nanda and businesswoman Ritu Nanda. Her mother, Shweta Bachchan Nanda, writes and runs her own ventures.

Asked directly how she separates herself from all of that, Nanda didn't dodge. "Everyone has a surname," she said simply, and everyone, she believes, carries an equal duty to live up to whatever name they hold. But she was equally clear about the limits of that inheritance. "I would never want to restrict my identity to just my last name," she said. Daughter, granddaughter, sister, friend, useful words, she said, but nowhere near enough to describe a person. Women, she added, exist "far beyond those labels."

The grandmother who made business look thrilling

If one person shaped her hunger for the corporate world, it was her late grandmother, Ritu Nanda, herself the eldest daughter of legendary actor-filmmaker Raj Kapoor, and a formidable businesswoman in her own right.

Nanda remembers childhood friends teasing her for being oddly obsessed with business talk. She didn't care. Watching her grandmother light up while describing deals and decisions made the corporate world feel, to a young Navya, like "the most exciting place imaginable." She traced a direct line from that early fascination to where she stands today: "A lot of my dadi's ambition, a lot of her strength, a lot of what she did when she was younger and what I saw growing up has led me to be sitting here on this stage sharing that with you today." Her mother and grandmother Jaya Bachchan, she added, shaped her just as deeply.

Building outside the family ledger

Nanda's ambitions don't stop at Escorts Kubota. She co-founded Aara Health, a wellness platform aimed at women, and started Project Naveli, a non-profit pushing for gender equality and opportunity. She's also co-writing The Map, an upcoming HarperCollins India title unpacking, and challenging, the myths surrounding her own generation.

In the end, she wasn't interested in pretending she could outrun her inheritance. She simply wants to add to it. "I think what has been passed around me is far more than what I might even achieve in my life," she said, an admission that sounded less like pressure, and more like gratitude.

Navya Naveli Nanda's education

Nanda's interest in business has also been reflected in her education. She earned a bachelor's degree in Digital Technology and UX Design from Fordham University in the US, giving her an academic background that combines technology, design and digital products.

She later returned to the classroom in India, enrolling at IIM Ahmedabad in 2024 for the institute's two-year Blended Post Graduate Programme in Management (BPGP). The programme is designed for working professionals and entrepreneurs and combines online learning with on-campus sessions. Nanda completed the programme in 2026 and shared glimpses of her student life and farewell from the IIM Ahmedabad campus.

Her decision to pursue management education while building businesses and working on social initiatives adds another layer to her professional journey. It also fits with the broader image she has sought to create for herself, one that combines entrepreneurship, technology and women's empowerment rather than being defined only by her family name.