‘No country in the world has done what we embark to do’

In the campus,which houses a fifth of the company’s 100,000-plus employees,Nilekani’s compelling presence will be missed. Employees are curious and excited about his new role. “He will be out there pursuing a greater cause,” said Hitesh Sharma,27,a market analyst with Infosys’s product engineering team.

Nilekani’s peers in the outsourcing industry see his appointment as a tribute to India’s growing confidence in its technology industry’s capability in solving the country’s problems as well as an accolade to leadership in the tech sector.

Setting up Infosys in Bangalore with Rs 10,000 in pooled savings,

N R Narayana Murthy,Nilekani and other founders have built it up to a $5-billion company.

Nilekani is a billionaire by virtue of his Infosys stock holding. With wealth and clout,the Murthys and the Nilekanis are increasingly involved in the non-profit,social sector.

“This is the logical next step for someone like Nandan,” said Subroto Bagchi,co-founder of rival Bangalore outsourcing company,MindTree Consulting. “It is a high-risk,high-reward challenge that is as significant,if not more,as founding Infosys.”

Competitor Wipro’s CFO Suresh Senapathy said the move would serve as a good beginning for more industry-government collaborations on critical initiatives.

A day after the official announcement,Nilekani was fielding a deluge of phone calls in his tastefully designed home in the Koramangala suburb of Bangalore.

“Yes,one more chapter begins in my life,” he told his aunt who called to congratulate him. For the dozens of young Indians who email him about their intentions to give back,he had words of encouragement.

Nilekani’s extraordinary articulation of ideas and his phenomenal managerial and networking skills have taken him far. But even he admits that the Unique ID project that will track and database 1.2 billion Indians is the most daunting yet. “I’m like a mega project manager working with thousands of government agencies not to mention dealing with the politics of it,” he told The Sunday Express.

The United States has its Social Security number and the United Kingdom has its National Insurance number. India’s Unique ID project could do outdo such databases globally by combining photos,fingerprints and other biometric identification. “No country in the world has done what we are embarking to do,this is the big enchilada,” said Nilekani.

As a technology hub with abundant availability of skills,Bangalore will be an integral part of the project. The project’s main data center will be located in Delhi but the disaster recovery will be in Bangalore.

As he makes a smooth transition from the corporate world to the government,nobody doubts Nilekani is the best fit for the job. He understands technology choices and can bring in a reliable,robust system that does not end up corrupt and error-bogged like the ration or electoral card systems. Unusually for a corporate head,he has vast knowledge of the government’s inner workings through his time,first,as the chairman of the Bangalore task force (where he got into the nitty-gritty of toilet location and garbage disposal) and,later,as a member of many commissions and committees in New Delhi.

Importantly,his high-profile position at Infosys has given him a network of friends both in politics and bureaucracy. Nilekani describes his new role as the “mother of all challenges.” He concedes,“Without the authority and the autonomy that the prime minister has given me,this would be a no-win.”

Sanjay Purohit,vice president and head of corporate planning at Infosys who has worked closely with Nilekani for the last eight years,says his boss’s networking abilities,technical prowess and strong bias for results make him perfect for the challenge. “His crossover from a successful corporate life to public life is motivational.” However,the level of uncertainties in the Unique ID project will be of a completely different league from that of a CEO. Bagchi of MindTree says Nilekani qualifies on the promise. “He is that rare blend of vision and humility whose softness can break through the rock of Indian bureaucracy”.

On his part,Nandan says he is looking forward to the task. He has beaten every pavement in every state in the United States on his Infosys job and is now looking forward to discovering India. He wants to go to Assam,Himachal Pradesh and many other Indian states he has never stepped into. He confesses he has not ever seen the Taj Mahal.

After all this is done,he says,“I’ll go and hang out in the hills of Coonoor,” where he and friends,like author Ramachandra Guha,have holiday homes.