[Reader-list] On my view of Nandan Nilekani

[Bipin Trivedi]

Dear Taha,

So much deep search work of Mr. Nilkeni carried out. Appreciate it. Yes, you
are right he has achieved so much in life financially with higher status.
So, your main argument is that the man who can earn handsome money daily how
can leave that overnight and probably joined this government offer where
government must have offered handsome money. You mention often Rs. 1,50,000
crore spending of UID project, so your first doubt seems to be that handsome
money out of this will go to his pocket. When a man achieved such status at
near to retirement age and arrived at threshold level will definitely think
to do something different other than the mere earning activity for his own
satisfaction. I know so many such people doing social welfare for their
mental satisfaction after earning sufficient money. Sam Pitroda can earn
handsome staying at US, but he choose to come to India when called why? Just
to accept challenges keeping risk factor of succeeding or failure both in
mind for mental satisfaction and to do something for mother country. 

His job is mainly to develop a number system which can sustain for
sufficiently long time about 40/50 years keeping population increment in
mind during this span and also to develop system to store large database for
the same. Data collection will be done by the government official and same
will be provided to them and thereafter his work will start from data
feeding, fingerprint process and all IT related work. So, his part is
restricted to IT related work as per my assessment after ready data will be
provided. So, he probably could not able to give estimate since he is
responsible for part of the project and he could not have idea about the
data collection spending which will be done by government official and
departments. That is why his statement, "We are just a number issuing and
data collecting authority.UIDAI is just the back-end," said Mr. Nilekani.
This statement indicates about his restricted role of this whole project and
I also thought the same thing which confirmed with this statement.

I wonder how this figure of Rs. 1,50,000 crore spending for whole project
came from. No official figure came up yet and Nilkeni also did not said
anything about it. Few media has published the same and you know media is
exaggerating the news for their publicity to increase readership. My
assessment is much less than this expense. Off course cannot specify any
figure yet but sure of not as mentioned above figure.

I surprised with your statement that IT sector failed to prove its mettle in
global trade. Please remember that IT sector today earning maximum revenue
and top in export. Indian It graduates are in maximum demand. No doubt, it
has slow down little bit today due to global crisis, but I am sure it will
have little impact and will do better again. Since crisis are not for ever
and cycle will turn again.

Thanks
Bipin




-----Original Message-----
From: Taha Mehmood [mailto:2tahamehmood at googlemail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2010 7:00 PM
To: Bipin Trivedi
Cc: sarai-list
Subject: On my view of Nandan Nilekani

Dear Bipin,

Thank you for your mail. I find that you seem to be pained by my
constant reference to Mr.Nandan Nilekani. Please allow me put my views
about Mr. Nandan Nilekani on record.

As a person who has achieved much in his life, I have nothing else but
deepest respect for him. Mr. Nilekani is a product of India's foremost
technology institute. In 1978 he passed out from IIT and started his
professional life. His first job was with Patni Computers. He was
given a salary of 1200 Rupees a month. Today his net worth is one
thousand and three hundred million dollars. The journey which he has
undertaken in a short span of thirty two years is simply remarkable.
We all know how he got in touch with Mr. Narayan Murthy and what
happened after that. So I wouldn't bore you that story.

As far as my view of Mr. Nandan Nilekani as a businessman is
concerned, I think he is a sharp, smart and a very successful man. I
would also like to think of him as a master craftsman. He seems to me
to be a man who has over the years cultivated a desire to make wealth
with zeal of a yogi.

He seems to be indifferent to his wealth. He does not come across as a
person who is drunk on his wealth. He practices his craft, that's for
sure. One can see marks of 'nirantar abhyas' (or constant practice) in
his work but at the same time one cannot but admire the vairagya
(indifference) that he exudes. This journey which began by
accumulating 1200 Rupees a month to result in a fortune of 1.3 Billion
must have been not been easy.

I assume he must have faced many self doubts. He must have failed many
a times. His colleagues, His near and dear ones must have expressed
their anxiety to him. But he didn't lose his focus. He kept on
practicing what he had set his mind for. He wanted to make money for
himself and for others. He wanted to create wealth. He did that. For
thirty years he did that.

I can imagine day in and day out his mind must have been plagued by
questions: 'How to make infosys work?' 'How to get a contract?' 'Who
to talk to in order to get this job done?' 'Who to employ?' 'How to
exploit this opportunity?' 'How to invest?' 'How to increase the
return on investments?' 'How to get around a tricky policy?' 'Who to
network with to get the more opportunities?'

It must have been a difficult ride. Life of a yogi is not easy. It's a
hard life. For thirty years he must have strategized with others like
him to ask the right questions so that he finds the right answers.
Answers which could help him create wealth.

Now whenever I read Rohini Nilekani's views on those days, I admire
the zeal of Nandan to do anything which could lead to creation of
wealth. Rohini, for instance, says : 'Earlier, when the children were
small, I thought the downside was that Nandan was just not around. I
mean in the early days, certainly they were all so busy that
personally I don't think he had much time for us. Obviously, Infosys
had to take precedence over other things.'
(http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/management/nandan-helps-me-think-logically
-rohini-nilekani_283584.html
) Even Nandan acknowledges this, 'As a father I am unable to spend
much time with them'
(http://www.domain-b.com/people/profiles/20021108_meticulous.html )

On another occasion she gives a glimpse into the life Mr. Nilekani
when he was sent to US to build Infosys there. 'He was always working,
"We lived out of four suitcases and went across the U.S.'
(http://www.forbes.com/global/2010/0315/philanthropy-technology-infosys-rohi
ni-nilekani-india.html
)

So you see, to me he comes across as a driven person. As a person who
did not care about anything else. Did what he had to do in order to
create wealth in order to live a dream that one day. One Day. Infosys
can becomes a name to reckon with.

To me Mr. Nandan Nilekani comes across as a brilliant method actor. He
comes across as someone who as the ability and tact to get into the
skin of a character to deliver an outstanding performance. For thirty
years he is been acting out one role which is that of wealth creator.
And I salute him for that.

But at the same time I wonder how come a man who has spent his life
trying to exploit opportunities to create wealth be suddenly made in
charge to distribute wealth and we are supposed to applaud that? Isn't
he performing out of character? Isn't he at a wrong stage?

How can a man who has spent his life thinking about ways and means to
create wealth be given a responsibility to distribute wealth. What
will be his instinctive response, tell me? What will he be thinking?
1,50,000 crore rupees are at stake with this UIDAI. This money is
largely going to go to IT sector. A sector which has failed to prove
it's mettle in global trade. This is a sector which made up more of
ITES services rather than IT. If the GOI wants to distribute wealth
then are there no better ways to do it?

The life of any person who sits on a public office deserves to be
thoroughly examined. It should be a matter of public interest to
everyone of us.

Just as Kasab is a terrorist and his place is in a penitentiary, just
as Ranbir Kapoor is an actor and his place is in bollywood, then why
can't we think that the place of a creator of wealth cannot be as same
as that of a distributor of wealth?

So I don't know what to do here, how could I trust what Mr. Nilekani
is doing is right when for all I know he may not be the right man for
the post.

Warm regards

Taha