His e-mail identity at Infosys will be disabled. His secretary for years Malliga will be reassigned. On Friday July 10, for the first time in 28 years, Infosys Technologies Ltd will not have co-founder Nandan M Nilekani on board when the company announces its quarterly results.

Nilekani, among the seven “skinny” people who founded one of India’s defining new economy success stories, walks into the arms of a new challenge in the government sector with what Infosys employees present at the official farewell described as a “raring to go” demeanor.

Nilekani, who with his affability, emerged as the face of Infosys around the world in recent years, will take over as the chairman of the National Unique Identification Development Authority of India on the request of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The 54-year-old, who served Infosys in the functions of chief operating officer, chief executive officer and managing director, and most recently as the co-chairman of the board of directors, refused to comment on his personal feelings on the end of a major journey in his life. “My last day at Infosys is a private and personal matter. I am not talking to anybody about this,” he said when contacted.

Employees who attended the official farewell where Nilekani and his family were felicitated, described the NUIDAI chairman appointee as saying something like “Infosys has been my identity. I need to lose this identity to give each Indian an identity”.

In an earlier farewell message to the one lakh plus Infosys employees Nilekani described the goodbye as being gut wrenching.

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