Nilekani moves from Infosys to government

Nilekani resigns from Infosys to take up new assignment

Nandan NiIekani has moved on from Infosys Technologies, a company he co-founded with N R Narayana Murthy and others in 1981. He has accepted the invitation of prime minister Manmohan Singh to take charge as chairperson of the unique identification authority of India. He will have the rank of a cabinet minister.

Infosys’ board of directors on Thursday accepted Nilekani’s resignation, effective from July 9. He holds the position of co-chairman in the company. The new authority will implement a scheme to assign a unique identification number to every Indian. No official word is available on the cost of the project. Though various figures are cited by many, Nilekani told a television news channel that he himself had no idea yet of the cost.

In an e-mail to Infosys employees, Nilekani said, “I have decided to accept the PM’s invitation, as this will help me to truly make a difference to India.”

Nilekani has been a director on the company’s board since its inception. Between March 2002 and June 2007, he was CEO and MD. Thereafter he was re-designated as co-chairman. Narayana Murthy, chairman and chief mentor of Infosys, said, “We are glad that an extraordinary individual like Nandan has got an opportunity to add value to India through this position. As a company that has always put the interest of society ahead of itself, Infosys will accept his absence with a sense of duty to a larger cause, but with deep sadness at the departure of one of her most illustrious sons.”

His colleague and board member, T V Mohandas Pai, said it was a “huge loss” to Infosys. “But I’m sure we have the management bandwidth to cover for this loss. There are people who can step up. At this point the board has not decided on Nilekani’s replacement. He’s 53 years old now, and I can’t comment on whether he’ll come back to our fold later, after this government runs its course,” Pai told FC.

Infosys officials ruled out a conflict of interest should the IT giant bid for contracts of the unique identification project, which be technology intensive and under a man who has served the company for so long. Chief executive officer S Gopalakrishnan said it was too early to say whether Infosys would bid for such contracts. “We do not know how this will be implemented or who will participate. Infosys will continue to bid for government projects. There are mechanisms so that the integrity of the process can be maintained,” he told FC.

Chief financial officer V Balakrishnan said Infosys could bid for contracts of the project, even with Nilekani heading it. “We could definitely bid as there are mechanisms in place to counter any conflict of interest,” he told FC. Nandan Nilekani holds 1.46 per cent stake Infosys, and his wife Rohini has 1.41 per cent. Their children, Jahnavi and Nihar, together hold 0.58 per cent. That’s only next to the Murthy family which holds 5 per cent stake.

Nasscom president Som Mittal welcomed Nilekeni’s in the new role. “It is welcome news since this is a significant and complex infrastructure project. A person like Nandan can help bring in lot of new business practices and transform the process. I think the appointment is to do with leadership, and obviously his technical background helps.”

Nilekani was born in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka. He was a product of IIT Mumbai (1973 batch) and joined Patni Computer Systems in 1978. It was at Patni that Nilekani met Narayana Murthy. Today he has an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion. In 2004, Nilekani was awarded the Padma Bhushan. Earlier this year, his book, Imagining India, was released.