[Reader-list] On my view of Nandan Nilekani

Thu May 27 16:57:20 IST 2010

Dear Malik,

Thanks for your consent and views. 

Thanks
Bipin

-----Original Message-----
From: A.K. Malik [mailto:akmalik45 at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2010 4:25 PM
To: Bipin Trivedi
Cc: sarai-list
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] On my view of Nandan Nilekani

Hi Bipin,
           You are very right, Sir. It is really painful to hear where
someone doubts the honesty and integrity of Nandan Nilkeni.What Dr Manmohan
Singh is getting today, is it for money he is PM he can earn crores in a
single deal.He had earned so much  while being posted in World Bank as a
part of salary and perks. There have been/are/would be people with honesty
and integrity.When you have earned enough, it is not money for which you
work, it could be fame, ego satisfaction etc. etc.It has become a fashion to
question the integrity of each and every individual.
Regards,

(A.K.MALIK)

--- On Thu, 5/27/10, Bipin Trivedi <aliens at dataone.in> wrote:

> From: Bipin Trivedi <aliens at dataone.in>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] On my view of Nandan Nilekani
> To: "'Taha Mehmood'" <2tahamehmood at googlemail.com>
> Cc: "sarai-list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Date: Thursday, May 27, 2010, 10:59 AM
> 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
> 
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the
> city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net
> with subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list 
> List archive: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>