[Reader-list] Nilekani has mentored, financed eGovernments Foundation- 179

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear All

The spin in some sections of media seems to have moved to Nandu's
team. First we were told how Nandu sacrificed whatever he had at Infi
to move to an uncharted territory, now it seems that the 'sacrifice'
fever has been passed on to Nandu's team.

The news story below features a new character in Srikanth Nadhamuni,
who it seems, has done nothing in his life but sacrifice.

 He sacrificed India to go to silicon Valley, then he Sacrificed
Silicon Valley to come back to India, then he joined Infi, then he
sacrificed infi to join eGovernment now he is sacrificing eGov to join
UIDAI, it seems.

Please read the story below from subtle emotionalisms like -leap of faith-

Warm regards

Taha

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Nilekani-has-mentored-financed-eGovernments-Foundation/articleshow/4782820.cms

Nilekani has mentored, financed eGovernments Foundation
16 Jul 2009, 0753 hrs IST, Pankaj Mishra, ET Bureau

BANGALORE: For Nandan Nilekani, eGovernance has been a labour of love.
For seven years he has been quietly pursuing his passion with a
not-for-profit trust that he founded before he was plucked out of
India’s second largest software exporter by the prime minister to lead
the country’s most ambitious eGovernance project.

eGovernments Foundation, into which he has poured Rs 15 crore from his
personal wealth, is an example and a pointer to the way Mr Nilekani
will manage the Unique Identity Development Authority of India
(UIDAI), the world’s biggest citizen database project.

The foundation, which he set up with former Silicon Valley engineer
Srikanth Nadhamuni, has equipped Mr Nilekani with expertise in
implementing eGovernance projects and provided him with a ready pool
resources should he decide to tap into it. eGovernments Foundation is
a window into the thinking of the man who will shepherd the effort to
give every Indian citizen a unique identity card.

What started as a not-for-profit venture to help the cause of
eGovernance in India is now evolving into a serious, commercial
business. eGovernments now plans to become a ‘for profit’ venture to
fund its growth and ensure that at least the costs are covered.

Today, software from eGovernments helps around 250 municipal bodies in
towns and cities across India to manage their inventory, property tax
collection and public grievance redressal. The solutions automate
these processes and allow users and officials get a bird’s eye view of
what’s happening.

Customers such as the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) are now
allowing online payment of property tax by citizens using software
from eGovernments. The corporation is also able to track all projects
being executed across each and every street in their municipal limits
using a sophisticated Geographical Information System (GIS).

“We are running Oracle at the back end, but eGovernments has provided
us software for property tax and finance ,” said an NDMC official.
“It’s not pricey to begin with. Moreover, the software is a very
comfortable experience, both for our officials and the citizens who
can now avoid long queues,” he added.

Officials at municipal corporations such as Bangalore’s BBMP are
seeing the benefit of using a software that addresses their specific
needs. “We have been using their property tax solution, and now have a
much better visibility on receipts and dues, almost on an hourly
basis,” a Karnataka government official said.

In Ramanagaram near Bangalore, citizens are now able to get birth
certificates within hours of birth because of a module that is
integrated with a government hospital. Hundreds of towns in Karnataka
now use the birth registration software developed by eGovernments.

“Our software competes with the best; we have put ourselves on the
line, we have to get into the trenches now,” says Mr Nadhamuni. As
India seeks to modernise its complex government systems and processes
with the help of technology, there is an opportunity for many emerging
ventures to evolve as country’s next Infosys or a Wipro in the
eGovernance market.

The decision to become a for-profit venture came about after the
foundation realised that giving away things free has its drawbacks.
Commitment by users is not guaranteed and in any case eGovernments had
to compete with the biggest and the best in the software business just
to make its solutions available.

Also, having achieved a substantial customer base, there was a
compelling need for eGovernments to start operating like a more
serious venture and generate enough cash to support salary and other
costs. “If we don’t charge anything, people can just unplug the
software any day. Buying commercial software also makes the government
more accountable,” says Mr Nadhamuni.

Around the time that eGovernments was looking for somebody with
sufficient zeal and business expertise to help it transform into a
commercial venture without overlooking the foundation’s original cause
of improving governance standards, Arun Ramu, who was heading Infosys’
$500 million product engineering and validation business, was also
looking for a change.

After leaving Infosys in August last year, he decided to meet the
company’s founders S D Shibulal and Mr Nilekani to find out if there
are any opportunities to work in the social sector. “Nandan said that
eGovernments wanted somebody to scale up the operation and take
charge,” recalls Mr Ramu, who joined eGovernments Foundation as its
chief executive in November last year.

“People like Mr Ramu have the missionary zeal for taking eGovernments
forward,” observes Mr Nadhamuni. When the 48-year old left Infosys
last year, he was managing a team of 12,000 and was one of the top ten
executives at India’s second biggest software company. He now earns
less than a quarter of what he took as salary at Infosys. “It was a
leap of faith for me,” says Mr Ramu. Not so for Mr Nilekani with his
new assignment, because of eGovernments Foundation.