Ask his colleagues at Infosys to describe Nandan Nilekani, who resigned as co-chairman of the company on Thursday to head the Unique Identification Authority of India (UID), and all of them have the same thing to say: “He is very good at connecting with people.”
V Balakrishnan, chief financial officer of the country’s second-largest IT firm, said Nilekani was brand ambassador of the company since its inception in 1981. He said the co-founder played a very important part in building consensus on tricky issues in the company. Balakrishnan, however, had no doubt the company would move on.
“It would be difficult for Infosys with a person of his stature leaving, but it would be manageable,” he said.
TV Mohandas Pai, head of human resource at Infosys, said Nilekani was a strategic think, a personality trait that enabled him to connect with leaders.
“His memory is very sharp. The highest number of global leaders might be visiting him in India at a non-political level,” he said.
It was Nilekani who put Infosys on the global map and coined the phrase “flat world”, which inspired Thomas Friedman to title his book The World is Flat.
Pai said one thing that people did not know about Nilekani was that he had one of the best wine cellars in the country. “He has a fine collection of wines. It must be the best in India,” he said.
The outgoing Infosys chief who graduated from IIT-Bombay in the late ‘70s has made most lists of world’s top business leaders compiled by leading publications. In 2004, Fortune named him one of the most powerful 25 business people in Asia.
For two consecutive years, in 2002 and 2003, Financial Times and PricewaterhouseCoopers named him among the world’s most respected business leaders.
He was at the helm when the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) was set up.
Nasscom president Som Mittal said Nilekani would execute the UID project smoothly. “Nandan exemplifies the skills that will ensure this initiative sets an example for an inclusive growth-led transformation of India. Nasscom is committed to the success of this project,” he said.
No looking back
As a co-founder, Nandan Nilekani has been on the Infosys board since its inception in 1981
He graduated from IIT-Bombay in 1978
Financial Times and PricewaterhouseCoopers named him among the world’s most respected business leaders in 2002 and 2003
Fortune named him among the25 most powerful business people in Asia in 2004
In 2003, Nilekani, with Narayana Murthy, received Fortune-Asia’s Businessman-of-the-Year award
He is a co-founder of Nasscom
He was chairman of the Centre’s IT task force for power sector
He also served as a member on the Sebi subcommittee that dealt with insider trading
He was a member of the RBI advisory group on corporate governance
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