Case Study

Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

Case Author: Manish Kumar Jain, Casestudyinc.com Published in June, 2010

Please note: This case study was compiled from published sources, and is intended for use as a basis for class discussion
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 Table of Contents

1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 3
2. Nandan Nilekani - Early Years ....................................................................................... 4
3. Nandan Nilekani - Leading Infosys ................................................................................ 5
4. Nandan Nilekani - Public Life ........................................................................................ 7
5. Nandan Nilekani - Leading UIDAI................................................................................. 7
5.1. Political Challenges .................................................................................................... 9
5.2. Other Indian Challenges ............................................................................................. 9
5.3. Opposition to UID – Data Privacy Concerns ............................................................... 9
5.4. Technological Challenges ......................................................................................... 10
5.5. Reaching the rural areas – Rebranding UID .............................................................. 11
6. The French Experience – Sharing best practices ........................................................... 11
7. Questions for discussion............................................................................................... 22
8. Additional Readings and References ............................................................................ 22

Exhibit 1 - Two Dimensions of software projects ................................................................ 12

Exhibit 2 - Infosys – Company Profile - 2010...................................................................... 12
Exhibit 3 - Infosys Timeline ................................................................................................ 13
Exhibit 4 - Infosys Historical Stock Price Chart................................................................... 13
Exhibit 5 - Nandan Nilekani - Achievements and Awards ................................................... 14
Exhibit 6 - Previous unsuccessful efforts by the Government for unique identification ........ 14
Exhibit 7 - Nandan Nilekani at the unveiling of the new UID logo ...................................... 15
Exhibit 8 - Leadership in India ............................................................................................ 15
Exhibit 9 - Features of the UID project ................................................................................ 16
Exhibit 10 - India at a Glance .............................................................................................. 17
Exhibit 11 - India on the World Map ................................................................................... 18
Exhibit 12 - Management Challenges - Private versus Public Sector.................................... 19
Exhibit 13 - Maturity levels in the CMM ............................................................................. 19
Exhibit 14 - List of organizations/bodies opposing UID Project across India ....................... 20
Exhibit 15 - National identification number used by the governments of many countries ..... 21

2 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

―The service business is very strategic, complex, sophisticated … We are using the knowledge of business,
processes, technology, consulting and creating solutions that make global companies more profitable and
competitive…You don’t ask Intel why they produce chips. You don’t ask Dell why they don’t make operating
systems. In every business, every company chooses the playpen in which they wish to operate.‖

- Nandan Nilekani, in 2006 then CEO of Infosys in an interview to CyberMedia news.

―As one of the biggest projects happening in the world, the UID project is generating a lot of excitement.‖

- Nandan Nilekani, now Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)1

―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.”

- Som Mittal, President, Nasscom

1. Introduction

In November 2009, Nandan Nilekani (Nilekani), 54, IT czar, a lead architect of India‘s
outsourcing boom and Chairman of India‘s Unique Identification Database Authority was
selected for the ‗Legend in Leadership Award‘. He became the first Indian to receive Yale
University's top honor. (See Exhibit 5 - Nandan Nilekani - Achievements and Awards on page 14)

Around the world, Nilekani is recognized as one of India‘s most successful software
entrepreneurs. He co-founded India‘s technology bellwether Infosys Technologies2 (see
Exhibit 2 - Infosys – Company Profile - 2010 on page 12) as a technology start-up in the 1980s –
now India‘s premier company in the IT sector and one of the biggest software exporters from
India. From March 2002 to June 2007, Nilekani was CEO and Managing Director of Infosys
and previously held the posts of the President and Chief Operating Officer. He led Infosys‘
global delivery model3 with the company's revenues growing from Rs.3,604 crores4 to
Rs.13,893 crores and the headcount scaled up from 10,700 people to over 72,000.

Nilekani always believed India could become the largest and the fastest growing democracy
on the planet, particularly so, with its forays into the information technology sector. In
January 2006, Nilekani became one of the youngest entrepreneurs to join 20 global leaders on
the World Economic Forum (WEF) Foundation Board. In 2009, he was invited by the Indian
Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to head the Government's Unique Identification project
(UID project), which aims to provide identity to a billion citizens. Nilekani was given the

1Nandan Nilekani | We will issue first set of UIDs by February 2011. (2010, April). Retrieved from Livemint.com:
http://www.livemint.com/2010/04/04213257/Nandan-Nilekani--We-will-issu.html?h=B

2Infosys is a publicly held company offering information technology consulting and software services to Fortune 1000 companies.
Infosys was started in 1981, by seven professional entrepreneurs (Nandan Nilekani, S.Gopalakrishnan, K. Dinesh, S.B.Shibulal,
N.S.Raghavan, Ashok Arora and Narayana Murthy) with an equity capital of Rs.10,000 (USD 250). By 2001, Infosys was one of the
biggest exporters of software from India. It became the first Indian company to follow the US Generally Accepted Accounting
Principles (GAAP) disclosure norms. In 1999, Infosys was listed on the NASDAQ.

3Infosys pioneered the Global Delivery Model (GDM) to ensure the distribution of application and business process lifecycle
activities and resources, while ensuring their integration.

4 1 crore=10 million, Rs=INR=Indian Rupees, 1USD=Rs 44 (approx.)

3 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

rank of a cabinet minister after he resigned as a board member of Infosys. The UID project
was one of the most ambitious projects of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led Indian
government to address citizenship and security concerns. With a unique ID, the Government
could ensure the benefits reached the targeted population of its flagship schemes and that any
gaps in the schemes were removed. (See Exhibit 9 - Features of the UID project on 16) Enrolling
nearly 1.20 billion residents in India (visiting nearly 240 million households) and dealing
with corruption, while implementing various government programs was a major challenge.
Could Nilekani, a man of technology who was prone to measure software projects in great
detail, successfully lead a government program, a social project with India‘s inherent
challenges?

2. Nandan Nilekani - Early Years

“I come from an entrepreneurial background of looking for opportunities and also frequently being told that
something is not possible.”

- Nandan Nilekani5.

“We were the guys who started Mood Indigo6. And I personally organized two of them. Once you have done
that, I think you know all about management. At least, all that I know about management and leadership I learnt
in Mood Indigo.”

- Nandan Nilekani in 20047.

On June 2, 1955 Nilekani was born in Bangalore, Karnataka, South India as the younger son
of Durga and Mohan Rao Nilekani. His father was a private sector employee, a Manager in
Minerva Mills, who subscribed to the Fabian Socialist ideology, an ideology that also
influenced Nilekani during his early years. He grew up in a very modest environment with
typical Indian middle class values.

Nilekani was exceptionally brilliant and had good leadership qualities. He graduated from
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay - B.Tech (Electrical Engineering). In 1978, he
joined a Mumbai-based software group Patni Computers where he was interviewed by N R
Narayana Murthy (co-founder of Infosys). In 1981, after three years, Nilekani and his
colleagues at Patni quit the company to form Infosys Technologies Ltd. Nilekani co-founded
Infosys with six colleagues and US $250 in start-up capital. From 1981 to 1987, he managed
the marketing and development efforts of Infosys in the U.S. In 1987, he came back to India
and based himself in Bangalore. (See Exhibit 3 - Infosys Timeline on page 13)

5 http://www.yorku.ca/yfile/archive/index.asp?Article=12616

6 Mood Indigo is the annual cultural festival of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay held in December.

7I learnt leadership at Mood I: Nandan Nilekani. (2004, December 18). Retrieved June 2, 2010, from Rediff.com:
http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2004/dec/18moodi.htm

4 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

3. Nandan Nilekani - Leading Infosys

“The Global Delivery Model that has been at the heart of our execution is more than just a way of getting work
done offshore. It is a genuine business innovation that delivers a superior value proposition at higher quality
and lower cost. By leveraging global resources and global strengths, it creates a new degree of freedom.”

- Nandan Nilekani, President, CEO and Managing Director, Infosys, in 20068

In March 2002, Nilekani took over the responsibility as Chief Executive Officer of Infosys
Technologies from the legendary (and co-founder) Narayana Murthy. Nilekani had the tough
job of transforming a $1-billion Indian software company to a truly global corporation. The
story of IT in India was full of time and cost overruns and project cancellations. Multinational
vendors such as IBM and Accenture had even stated that they did not see Indian companies
participating in deals in excess of $100 million9.

Nilekani knew he had to continue to bring a discipline in how things were done - excellence
in execution. He emphasized values like doing things on time, on budget, and using high
quality people. Nilekani also knew that managing a company as a single entity with more
than 25,000 employees (at the time) was difficult. This led to Infosys transforming its
business around specific verticals such as healthcare, retail, and banking. He believed a head
of an organization could give a personal touch by subdividing the business into manageable
smaller entities. This would also lead to creating specialists in industry verticals and not only
a business plan for the company but a business plan for each of these groups with hard
numbers.

Another challenge for Nilekani was leading a multicultural company and establishing a
global delivery model. At the time, Infosys had more than 600 employees (non-Indian) from
more than 30 nationalities across the world. He had to build the diversity as well as managing
it into the Infosys global delivery model.

In 2004, Nilekani responded to a question on what challenges Infosys faced ahead. He said,
―The first is managing scale, the second managing risk, the third managing growth with
differentiation, the fourth, the whole process of becoming more multicultural and diverse and
the fifth is the outsourcing challenge. Lot of these complex issues have to be managed and we
have to navigate through all that….this is a model (the global delivery model) which
leverages on the power of modern technology such as broadband to reengineer value chains
from a local activity to a global activity, from a local resource pool to a global resource pool
and local capacity utilization to a global capacity utilization."

Software project management (see Exhibit 1 - Two Dimensions of software projects on page 12) at
Infosys is a highly evolved process and the company successfully executed hundreds of IT
projects. In 2002, Infosys was assessed at level 5 (the highest level) of the CMM Integrated

8 Scripting a Success Story, India Now, January 19, 2006

9Thiagarajan, K., & Kulkarni, V. (2004, March 21). Enough resilience in the global delivery model — Mr Nandan Nilekani, CEO and
Managing Director, Infosys Technologies. Retrieved June 03, 2010, from The Hindu:
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/iw/2004/03/21/stories/2004032100530600.htm

5 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

(CMMI)10 for offshore and onsite operations. It was the first Indian company to do so. In
1999, Infosys had already become the 21st company in the world to achieve a CMM Level 5
certification. (See Exhibit 13 - Maturity levels in the CMM on page 19)

For successive years in 2001 and 2002, Infosys had been adjudged the 'Best Company to
Work For' but had lost this position in the next couple of years. In 2005, under Nilekani‘s
leadership, Infosys won ―India's Best Managed Company Award‖ based on a study
conducted by Business Today and A.T. Kearney. Infosys was placed ahead of 13 finalists.
Infosys had around 36,000 employees at the time and it had never missed a target in 48
quarters. It clearly had a planning process that was top-notch. But a humble Nilekani believes
himself to be an ‗accidental entrepreneur‘. He says, being at the right time, in the right place
and with the right people did the trick for him 11.

Nilekani always felt that India needed a company based on middle class values where ethics,
courtesy, honesty, and fairness were important features, where people were treated as human
capital and were given a chance to participate in management, in ownership. Nilekani and
other founders wanted to create a respected and an admired company, a company that
practiced very ethical standards of business conduct. When Infosys became successful based
on these values, he was proud of the fact that Infosys had not paid bribes, had not done
anything unethical to be in this position. (See Exhibit 8 - Leadership in India on page 15)
(Continued on next page)

10CMMI is a model released by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), US and is an enhanced version of the Capability Maturity
Model that integrates various other frameworks created by SEI. The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) is a widely a dopted set of
guidelines (framework) for evaluating and improving an organization's software development processes.

11I learnt leadership at Mood I: Nandan Nilekani. (2004, December 18). Retrieved June 2, 2010, from Rediff.com:
http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2004/dec/18moodi.htm

6 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

4. Nandan Nilekani - Public Life

“India has a way of doing business that brings together business leadership with national leadership and
societal leadership. Many heads of business are deeply involved in matters from climate change to child
nutrition, and they find it entirely appropriate and even necessary to make their views on such matters public...
Indian leaders care as much about national purpose as about financial results.”

– Forbes12

Nilekani has been active in public life. His first exposure to public life came about a decade
ago, when the Chief Minister of Karnataka, invited him to head a body called the Bangalore
Agenda Task Force to oversee public policy issues. Nilekani dedicated his weekends to the
task force. Nilekani also became a member of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC)
and a part of the National Advisory Group on e-governance. He also became a member of the
review committee of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. He took over as
the elected President of NCAER (the independent, applied economics research institute in
India) in April 2008. Nilekani has also chaired the central government‘s IT Task Force for
Power.

Nilekani was always a very expressive person and a much sought-after speaker in
international conferences. He had the skill to see the larger picture and communicate ideas
better than most. His famous comment - ‗the world is flat‘ made to New York Times writer
Thomas Friedman led to a bestseller book by the same name. In 2007, he wrote a book titled
‗Imagining India‘ which received rave reviews. He already had a whole chapter on how
unique identity was a key to many of India‘s issues. Perhaps this was what led to the Prime
Minister‘s call on him to head the identity project. Nilekani was very happy with the
appointment as it would allow him to bring in change at a national level where he could
contribute as a change agent with his skill sets as a technocrat.

5. Nandan Nilekani - Leading UIDAI

“I am generally very articulate but this is not the day or place where I can be articulate. I've been wrapped up
in Infosys for 28 years. My only identity is Infosys. I will be going to lead a programme to give identity to every
Indian. But today I am losing my identity… But, in my new role, I'm supposed to work with 600 government
departments knowing fully well that no two government departments get along with one other.”

- Nandan Nilekani, making a speech on his last day at Infosys

For 30 years, Nilekani was focused on selling Infosys to leading companies globally. Leaving
Infosys was a tough call. The easier option for him could have easily been continuing on at
Infosys till the retirement age of 60. However, he chose to take up a role in public service. He
had to sell the concept of a national identity program to the grassroots politicians and
bureaucrats. He was now leading Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as the

12Cappelli, P., Singh, H., Singh, J., & Useem, M. (2010, April 14). The India Way Of Doing Business. Retrieved June 03, 2010, from
Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/14/india-business-way-leadership-citizenship-
useem.html?boxes=leadershipchannellatest

7 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

Chairman. His past success with Infosys in no way guaranteed automatic success in this
unique and challenging program. (See Exhibit 12 - Management Challenges - Private versus Public
Sector on page 19) But, Nilekani was dedicated to the new challenge splitting his time between
Delhi (UIDAI's official headquarters) and Bangalore (his residence and where UIDAI's
technical team was based). In about four months he met 12 Chief Ministers of different states
to explain in detail about the UID project. He needed their support in enrolling people into
the program. Nilekani's excellent public relations skills and his diplomacy would be of
immense use here.

In between all this he had to take care of other assignments such as a workshop at the
National Law School in Bangalore where he brainstormed with a group of legal experts on
how to create the legal framework for the UIDAI, a workshop organized by the Indian
Institute of Advanced Studies at Shimla where he met a bunch of sociologists, NGOs and
political scientists to evangelize the UID project.

Nandan Nilekani in an interview with the Financial Express

You have been a government employee for nearly a year now. What has been your
experience so far vis a vis the corporate world, in terms of the style of working?

One major thing that I have found is that in government you have to take everyone along with
you if you want ideas to have even a chance of being successful. In the corporate sector, you
have a board which you need to convince and if you carry a numerical majority, everyone has
to fall in line.

In government the style is more consensual, also of course because of the scale of things. I
have had meetings with a huge number of people and have had a great deal of cooperation
from everyone, from the Prime Minister to chief ministers and RBI. Civil society groups, which
are dispersed and diffused also need to be taken along. It takes a while to get this consensus
together, but one’s concepts are clearer because of that.

Excerpted from source

Nistula Hebbar. (2010, May 10). ‘UID model is only as good as its application’. Retrieved June 03, 2010, from
Financial Express: http://www.financialexpress.com/printer/news/616356/

(Continued on next page)

8 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

 5.1. Political Challenges

According to studies from Harvard Business School and the World Bank, corruption13
siphons as much as 80% of the funds meant for India's poor14. The UID program aimed to
bring masses of India's poor into the formal economy, where they could gain access to
governmental finance schemes and social services. This would translate into new
accountability to government bureaucracy. A unique ID could authenticate that goods and
money make their way from local administrators to the people. Naturally, Nilekani had to
encounter political challenges against powerful entrenched interests which included corrupt
contractors and even government employees who usually misused the funds. (See Exhibit 6 -
Previous unsuccessful efforts by the Indian Government for unique identification on page 14)

5.2. Other Indian Challenges

 There are 75 million homeless, without birth certificates and without any identity
 There are 600,000 villages in India—and only 6% have bank branches. (See Exhibit 10
and 11 on page 17)
 Power outages are a key factor limiting the access and utility of computers in rural
areas.
 India has poor infrastructure, low literacy levels for many people, and labor
inflexibilities.
 India ranks 50th in the world in terms of productivity growth.

5.3. Opposition to UID – Data Privacy Concerns

It was always clear that the unique identification scheme (UID) was going to gather opposition as it
progressed. Those voices are crystallizing. The resistance comes from three domains. First, from civil
society activists who feel that unique biometric identities will turn India into an Orwellian nightmare.
Two, from bureaucratic infighting: senior civil servants resent the fact that an outsider has been brought
in for a project that ought to have been “their” baby. Finally, from low-level politicians and officials who
see UID as a dangerous idea that will only lead to one destination: direct cash transfers, cutting them out
of the loot.

Excerpted from source

Give the UID project a chance. (2010, January 12). Retrieved June 03, 2010, from Livemint.com:
http://www.livemint.com/2010/01/11212510/Give-the-UID-project-a-chance.html

Countries like Australia, UK, and the U.S. have found their unique identification projects
impracticable due to the probability of abuse and the strong public opposition. In India,

13 According to global corruption watchdog Transparency International's latest survey, India is perceived as a highly corrupt na tion
in the world ranked 84 among 180 countries on the integrity score.

14Mehul Srivastava, Steve Hamm. (2009, July 16). The Man Behind India's ID Card Program. Retrieved June 03, 2010, from
BusinessWeek: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_30/b4140056501197.htm

9 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

several civil society groups like Centre for Internet Society (CIS), the People‘s Union for
Civil Liberties (PUCL), Aadhar Watch Initiative among others, opposed the UID for what
they see as a another source data vulnerability15. Some other groups felt that there was no
wide public discussion on the feasibility or desirability of the project. There was also
opposition to entrepreneurs being appointed as non-politicians with cabinet rank16.
Opposition groups demanded immediate scrapping of the UID project including scrutiny of
all transactions, increased transparency with contracts and de-linking of the project with the
ongoing Census. (See Exhibit 7 - Nandan Nilekani at the unveiling of the new UID logo on page 19)

Nilekani acknowledged the concerns that the privacy of data could be compromised were
legitimate but also felt that design of the UID program (e.g. data encryption) would prevent
this from happening. In May 2010, he also admitted that there was a need for a larger debate
on protection of privacy in the country. To prevent the potential abuse of the planned UID
database on Indian citizens, Nilekani announced that the UIDAI would soon come out with a
set of guidelines, not just for its own software, but also for all government departments
holding sensitive personal information in their databases.

5.4. Technological Challenges

“India is an extremely complex country, and it requires a lot of localization…It was primarily a courtesy
meeting where we also did inquire if Yahoo! could be of any help in the area of cloud (metaphor for the
internet) technologies. We are in the business of managing data. We process around 500 billion emails every
month, so we wondered if we could assist in the area of managing the databases as India tries to implement the
Unique Identity (UID) project.”

- Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo! Inc. on her first visit to India and meeting the Indian Prime Minister 17

Major global companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, Cisco and many others have expressed
interest in helping the government and Nilekani with the UID project. The UID involves
maintaining a huge database and handling vast amount of data besides online authentication.
Hardware challenges include finding right vendors for computing power, storage vendors and
systems integration challenges.

Another technical challenge is with biometric data – fingerprints and iris scan. How to handle
cases where there is erosion of fingerprints of people who are involved in heavy physical
labor (especially in rural India) or eye sight being affected over a period of time. To address
this challenge, a biometrics committee was set up.

15The UID would source data from multiple sources—various government agencies, including the income tax department, banks,
the public distribution system and various state governments.

16Citizens against UID project ‘Aadhaar’. (2010, April 29). Retrieved June 15, 2010, from Mizoram Express:
http://mizoramexpress.com/index.php/2010/04/citizens-against-uid/

17Leslie D'Monte. (2009, November 12). Yahoo! sets eyes on India's UID project. Retrieved June 04, 2010, from Business Standard:
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/yahoo-sets-eyesindia%5Cs-uid-project/376108/

10 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

 5.5. Reaching the rural areas – Rebranding UID

“We wanted a name with national appeal, was easy to remember and speak and applied to different languages”

- Nandan Nilekani

Many analysts felt that a name like UID would not appeal to a majority of its target audience
– the marginalized people who will get a foolproof identity to claim various social sector
scheme incentives. They might have to forgo a day‘s income to travel and get enrolled. To
address this, the Finance Commission made a grant of about Rs 2,980 crore (approx. USD
637.71 million) for the incentive for getting registered and people below the poverty line
would get Rs 100 each.

The project was renamed ‗Aadhar‘ (in Hindi the national language and meaning foundation
or depend or support) with a new logo - the halo of the Sun on the imprint of a thumb. The
name ‗Aadhaar‘ would also work across all regional languages too. (See Exhibit 7 on page
12) A majority of the population in rural India understood the visual and the audio much
more than written words. After studying what works with rural Indian population e.g. other
mass public change initiatives like polio awareness, Nilekani announced that the project
would be marketed through media, advertisements, word of mouth, village posters among
others.

6. The French Experience – Sharing best practices

“Personal Identity Number system began in France in 1941 with a primary objective to organize recruitment of
men in the army and has subsequently evolved as an important tool of social security among other uses.”

- Michel Villac, French government expert on Unique Number systems.18

Many countries have issued numbers to their citizens for identification, most notably the
Social Security Number by the U.S. (which was originally issued for social security benefits).
(See Exhibit 15 - National identification number used by the governments of many countries on page 21)

Recently, France launched a Unique Social Security Number project successfully. France
offered to help India with its experience in implementing the project. The French Embassy
and Smartcard Forum of India (SCAFI) organized an initiative, the ―Unique Identity
Workshop‖ to share the French experience in Unique Identification programs with key
stakeholders of India's UID project.

18 France offers expertise for India's UID project. (2010, April 12). Retrieved June 15, 2010, from The Times of India:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5788345.cms

11 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

 Exhibit 1 - Two Dimensions of software projects

Software
Projects

Engineering Project Management

Planning and
Meet project goals for
Building the How to design, controlling the
cost, schedule, and
system test, code, etc. engineering
quality
activities

Exhibit 2 - Infosys – Company Profile - 2010

Company name Infosys

NASDAQ INFY
Sector Technical and systems software
Location Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Website www.infosys.com
Market cap ~$ 32.43 billion
Revenue $ 4.8 billion
Employees 109000
Revenue / employee $ 42470
Net income $ 1.285 billion
Shares outstanding 570.7 million
Annual earnings / share $ 2.26
P/E ratio 25.15
(Source – Infosys Annual Report – Fiscal 2010 and ADR filings)

12 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

 Exhibit 3 - Infosys Timeline

Year Event
1981 Infosys was founded
1992 Infosys became a public limited company
1993 Received ISO 9001 certification
1999 First Indian company to get listed on NASDAQ
1999 Achieved SEI-CMM Level 5
2001 Crossed $ 400 million
2002 Crossed $ 500 million
2004 74th among the World’s Top 100 InfoTech comp by
Business Week
2004 Reached the $ 1 billion milestone
2006 Reached the $ 2 billion milestone with 527,15
employees

Exhibit 4 - Infosys Historical Stock Price Chart

13 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

 Exhibit 5 - Nandan Nilekani - Achievements and Awards

Year Award/Achievement
1988 Co-founded India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM)
2002 Became the Chief Executive Officer of Infosys
2003 ‘World’s most respected business leaders’, a global survey by Financial Times and
PricewaterhouseCoopers
2004 Fortune magazine named him one of “Asia’s Power 25 – The Most Powerful People in Business
in Asia”
2005 The Joseph Schumpeter Prize for innovative services in economy, economic sciences and
politics.
2006 Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian honors awarded by the Government of India
2006 “100 Most Influential People in the World” by TIME magazine
2006 “Business Leader of the Year” by Forbes Asia
2006 Became one of the youngest entrepreneurs to join 20 global leaders on the World Economic
Forum Foundation Board.
2007 Forbes “Businessman of the Year” for Asia
2009 Time magazine placed Nilekani in the Time 100 list of 'World's Most Influential People'
2009 A speaker at the prestigious TED conference where he talked about his ideas for India's future
2009 'Legend in Leadership Award' by the Yale University

Exhibit 6 - Previous unsuccessful efforts by the Indian Government for unique identification

Voter ID Card

Almost a decade ago, the Indian government had issued voter ID cards.
The ID card featured a grainy black and white photograph of the voter with
address and a Voter ID number. The program though still present in the system
was prone to corruption as anyone could print and laminate a card. One could
even buy the ID cards on the black market to get food rations and residency
permits and perhaps even voting rights.

PAN Card

The income tax department issues a taxpayer ID, called the PAN card.
Only a fraction of India’s population with jobs/businesses in the organized
sector or bank savings can get one. One can buy a fake card easily in the black
market.

Ration Card

Ration cards have been an important part of the Public Distribution

System (PDS) in India. However, with rampant corruption in India, a ration card
can be bought for as low as Rs. 500(15 US$) in the black market.

14 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

 Exhibit 7 - Nandan Nilekani at the unveiling of the new UID logo

(Source: Photo by R.V. Moorthy 19, The Hindu dated April 26, 2010)

Exhibit 8 - Leadership in India

19
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article410397.ece
15 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics
 Exhibit 9 - Features of the UID project

 The UIDAI is a project under Planning Commission of India to issue 16-digit

identification (ID) numbers to all residents. Nilekani plans to issue 600
million UIDs over the next five years.

 Currently, the UIDAI is executing proof of concepts (PoCs) in three states -

Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Bihar. These PoCs will enable certain
systems to be tested before the concept is scaled up.

 UID project is expected to create 0.35 million new jobs to carry out the
mammoth task of providing ID to Indian citizens, numbering over one
billion.

 A study by CLSA, a brokerage firm, on the impact of the project estimates

that it will lead to commercial opportunity worth $20 billion during its first
five years of operation and $10bn per year from sixth year onwards.

 While banks are estimated to gain 125 million new accounts, telecom
providers may get 60 million new subscribers, leading to an additional
US$4.5 billion in mobile payments and US$2 billion in average revenue per
user.

 Roll out of the first Unique Indentification (UID) numbers - the roll out will
be between August 2010 and February 2011

 The UID is a number, not an identification card.

 Each number will be unique to an individual, with fingerprints of all 10

fingers and an iris scan of the eye used to identify the person.

 The UID project is estimated to offer IT companies an Rs 15,000-20,000

crore (more than US$ 3 billion) opportunity, as it sets to build an ecosystem
around the project, comprising biometrics, databases, smartcards, storage
and system integration.

 UIDAI was allocated a sum of Rs 120 crore (approx. US$ 25.80 million) in
last year’s (2009) budget and Rs 1,900 crore (approx. US$ 408.51 million)
this year (2010).

 MindTree, the Bangalore-based information technology (IT) services

provider, has secured the application development services (ADM) segment.
The ADM multi-crore project involves the complete application lifecycle —
from designing, developing, testing, maintaining and supporting the UID
application to providing help desk services from the UIDAI’s (Unique
Identification Authority of India) Bangalore Technology Centre.

16 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

 Exhibit 10 - India at a Glance

Area 3.287x10^6 square kilometers

(world rank: 7th)
Population 1.18 billion people
(world rank: 2nd)
Population density 397 people per square kilometer
(world rank: 28th)
Population growth 1.49% per year
(world rank: 95th)
Life expectancy 69.9 years
(world rank: 149th)
Median age 25.3 years
(world rank: 132nd)
Literacy fraction 61%
GDP $1.254 trillion per year
(world rank: 13th)
GDP at parity $3.304 trillion per year (2008)
(world rank: 4th)
Real GDP $1.254 trillion per year
(price-adjusted to year-2008 US
dollars)
(world rank: 12th)
GDP per capita $ 1060 per person per year (2008)
(world rank: 186th)
GDP real growth 7.288% per year
(world rank: 36th)
Inflation rate 7.642% per year
(world rank: 104th)
Unemployment rate 9.1% (2008)
(world rank: 90th)
(Source: Wolfram Alpha)

17 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

 Exhibit 11 - India on the World Map

 States in India - There are 28 states and 7 Union territories in the

country.

 Districts - There are 626 Districts in India administered by their

respective State/UT Government.

 Languages - The Constitution of India has recognized 22 different

languages. There are hundreds of dialects

 National Portal of India - http://india.gov.in/

18 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

 Exhibit 12 - Management Challenges - Private versus Public Sector

Issue Corporate/Private Sector Government/Public Sector

Budget Tight Budgets but Flexible Budgets planned much in
decisions advance and inflexible
Recruitment Quick hiring depending on Slow
project needs
Firing Quick. Non-performers are Slow and requires excessive
laid off or given the pink slip documentation
Bureaucracy Corporate bureaucracies tend Sheer size and job security
to be less prevalent foster strong bureaucratic
attitudes and resistance to
change
Procurement Fast and as per requirements Slow and Lengthy procedures
Corruption Less Tends to be more
Productivity Better Less. Laid-back employees
common
Project Meets expectations Project delays/overruns
delivery common
Cost Cutting Possible with specific project Not possible in many cases
cuts
Visibility Anonymity, isolation from High visibility, pursued by
the media the media
Rewards Rewards for achievement Punishment for failure
Excess funds distributed as
a bonus or salary increase
Leadership Long-term Limited by elections and
continuity Government change
Objectives Measured by results/profits Measured by Process
(Adapted from various sources)

Exhibit 13 - Maturity levels in the CMM

Level 1
Level 2 - Repeatable
level
Level 3 - Defined level
Level 4 - Managed level
Level 5 - Optimizing
level
A project is executed in a manner that the team and project manager see fit
Established project management practices are employed, although
organization-wide processes may not exist
Organization-wide processes have been defined and are regularly followed
Quantitative understanding of the process capability makes it possible to
quantitatively predict and control the process performance on a project
The process capability is improved in a controlled manner and the
improvement is evaluated quantitatively
(Source - Managing Software Projects: The Infosys Model by By Pankaj Jalote)

19 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

 Exhibit 14 - List of organizations/bodies opposing UID Project across India

Moving Republic, Bangalore Kerala Tourism watch

Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore Dalit Women’s Forum, Andhra Pradesh
Citizens Action Forum, Bangalore Centre for Education and Documentation, Mumbai
PUCL, Karnataka IPTA (Bihar)
Slum Janandolana EKTA (commitee for communal amity), Mumbai
Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore EQATIONS, Bangalore
Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF) Openspace, Bangalore
PEACE, New Delhi Rajadhari Basti Uriyan Parishad, Orissa
Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, Badvani(MP) Chhattisgarh Kisan Mazdoor Vikas Kendra
South Indian Cell for Human Rights Education & Asangatit karmakar Shramik Union, UP
Monitoring (SICHREM), Bangalore Munsikhan Mawat vikas Community Foundation,
Posco Prathirodh Sangram Samithi, Orissa Alwar, Rajasthan
Adivasi Mulvasi Astitva Raksha Manch, Jharkhand Pondichery Slum Dwellers Federation
Himalaya Niti Abhiyan, Himachal Pradesh Himpravesh, solar, Himachal Pradesh
National Hawkers Federation Chhattisgarh Action Reserch Team (CART), Raipur
Kerala Swathanthra Matsya Thozhilali Federation ViBGYOR Film Collective, Kerala
(KSMTF) Adivasi, Sarumgi Vikas Sangh, Gujarat
Nagpur Municipal Corporation Employees Union Samata, Orissa
Nadi Ghati Morcha, Chhattisgarh Society for Culture & Development, Kerala
Peoples’ Solidarity Concerns- Bangalore Youth Initiative for Leadership Training, Kerala
Janvikas, Orissa Patabhedam Magazine, Calicut, Kerala
Other Media Communications, Bangalore Global Alternate Information Applications(GAIA),
Visual search, Bangalore Thrissur, Kerala
Theeradesa MahilaVedi, Kerala Kabani – The Other Direction, Kerala
National Coastal Women’s Movement, Chennai Pedestrian Pictures, Bangalore
Alliance of women’s right in Disaster(ANWORD), Just Peace Foundation, Manipur
Chennai Concern, IISc, Bangalore

(Source: Citizens against UID project ‘Aadhaar’. (2010, April 29). Retrieved June 15, 2010, from Mizoram Express:
http://mizoramexpress.com/index.php/2010/04/citizens-against-uid/)
 Exhibit 15 - National identification number used by the governments of many countries

Country Unique ID Description Source

Australia Australia Card In Australia there is no universal identifying number for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natio
(Proposed) individuals. ... The Australia Card proposal would have nal_identification_number
created a universal number for Australian ...

China ID number has 18 The Republic of China National Identification Card is an http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natio
digits and is in the identity document ... Possession of the Identification Card nal_Identification_Card_(Republic_of
format along with the Republic China Passport ... _China)
RRRRRRYYYYMMDD
SSSC

France INSEE code In France, the INSEE code is used as a social insurance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natio
number, a national identification number, for taxation nal_identification_number
purposes, for employment, etc. ...

Germany The West German In Germany, there is no national identification number http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natio
government intended legalized. ... In East Germany, a similar system named nal_identification_number
to create a 12-digit Personenkennzahl (PKZ) was set up in 1970 and ...
personal
identification
number
(Personenkennzeiche
n, PKZ)

South Identity Document In the Republic of South Africa, every citizen can apply http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natio
Africa The ID number is a for an Identity ... In contrast to other countries the South nal_identification_number
13-digit number of African ID number is not unique in its ...
the form
YYMMDDGSSSCAZ.

UK A National Insurance National Identity Cards for UK nationals became http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natio

number, generally available to people resident ...... "Johnson reveals ID nal_identity_card_(United_Kingdom)
called an NI Number register linked to NI numbers". Theregister.co.uk. ...
(NINO), is used to
administer state
benefits and get jobs

United Social Security There is no true national identity cards in the United http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identi
States of Number States of America, in the sense that there is no federal ty_documents_in_the_United_States
America agency with nationwide jurisdiction that ...

(Source: Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_identification_number)

21 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics

7. Questions for discussion

1. Which leadership theory would be most helpful in guiding Nilekani‘s transition from
private to public sector leadership? Explain.

2. What are the potential opportunities and consequences of accepting or rejecting France‘s
expertise with the UID project?

3. Outline a strategy for calming the fears of the groups in opposition to the UID project.

8. Additional Readings and References

1. Official Website of UIDAI: http://uidai.gov.in/

2. Official Website of Infosys: http://www.infosys.com

3. National identification number, From Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_identification_number

4. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI):

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Unique-Identification-Authority-of-India-
UIDAI/219687107766

5. Nandan Nilekani’s Blog – Imagining India – Ideas for the next century:
http://imaginingindia.com/blog/

6. Nandan Nilekani's ideas for India's future | Video on TED.com. (2009, May). Retrieved June 15, 2010,
from http://www.ted.com/talks/nandan_nilekani_s_ideas_for_india_s_future.html

7. Nilekani, N. (2010, January). Infrastructure, Subsidies, and the UID. Retrieved June 15, 2010, from
RITES Journal: http://www.rites.com/rites-journal-2010/PDF/Nandan_Nilekani.pdf

8. Sibal, U. (2010, April 27). Video Interview – Nandan Nilekani on India’s UID project: Retrieved June 15,
2010, from http://blogs.reuters.com/india/2010/04/27/interview-nandan-nilekani-on-indias-uid-
project/

22 Nandan Nilekani – From Infosys to Politics