NANDAN NILEKANI

ORGANISATION BEHAVIOUR
PROJECT
 introduction
• Nandan Nilekani is considered among the most successful business
leaders from India. He has several accolades and awards to his
name which are proofs of his tremendously rich leadership in
fostering Infosys first and now theUnique Identification Authority of
India (UIDAI). Nandan Nilekani was born in Bangalore, Karnataka on
June 2, 1955 as the younger son of Durga and Mohan Rao Nilekani.
He grew up as a typical middle class child high on traditional and
moral values. As a child, Nilekani was extremely brilliant and had
good leadership skills. He graduated from the Indian Institute of
Technology, Mumbai and joined the Mumbai based software firm
Patni Computers where he came into acquaintance with Mr. N R
Narayan Murthy who later founded Infosys Technologies with Nadan
and his associates.
BORN 2JUNE 1955,
BANGLORE
,KARNATKA,INDIA

RESIDENCE BANGLORE

OCCUPATION CHAIRMAN OF
UNIQUE
IDENTIFICATION
AUTHORITY OF
INDIA

NET WORTH $1.8 BILLION (2011)

EDUCATION B.TECH
Early life
 Early life
• Born as the second and last son to Durga and Mohan Rao Nilekani, a
manager in , Nandan Nilekani spent his first 12 years in Bangalore, India.
His father's job was transferable, and the young Nandan moved in with his
uncle's family inDharwad for his studies. He eventually studied at Bishop
Cotton Boys School, Bangalore. He attended the Indian Institute of
Technology, Bombay from 1973 onwards. One day after graduating in 1978,
Nandan walked into the office of N. R. Narayana Murthy— then head of
the software group at the Mumbai-based Patni Computer Systems — to
seek a job. Their chemistry clicked and Murthy hired the
young engineering graduate right away. Neither realised then that the
relationship would last long and get etched in India’s corporate history.
Three years later (1981) seven enthusiasts (including Nandan) decided to
start their own outfit (Infosys Technologies Ltd) with Murthy in the lead.
Their decision rewrote the domestic software industry of India. In 2006, he
was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award from the
Government of India. In January 2006, he became one of the youngest
entrepreneurs to join 20 global leaders on the World Economic Forum
(WEF) Foundation Board. He is regarded by TIME magazine as one of the
100 most influential people in the world in itsssue of May 2006.
• He became the chief executive officer (CEO) of Infosys in March 2002. He
currently functions as the President of the company. He is a co-founder of
India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies
(NASSCOM). He is also the chairperson of Bangalore Agenda Task
Force (BATF). He has been named one of ‘Asia’s Power 25 – the most
powerful people in business in Asia' by Fortune magazine, 2004. Nandan
speaks Konkani at home and he is married to Rohini (an English-language
writer and novelist) and they have two children, a daughter Janhavi and a
son Nihar. In December 2006, his daughter Janhavi went to the Yale
"Freshmen Screw" with the unknown Jason Silberstein. He wore a pink
sweater with a bright green shirt underneath. Jason only had $4, and
Janhavi almost had to pay for his ticket. In May 2006, in a study conducted
by Brand-comm a leading Brand Consulting, Advertising and PR firm, Mr.
Nilekani emerged as one among the top ten most admired business leaders
of India. With the retirement of Infosys Chairman Narayan Murthy, Nandan
Nilekani heads the company. He is currently the CEO and Managing
Director of Infosys.
Personal life
• Nandan used to take a BEST bus from Santa Cruz, where he then
lived, and come to Nariman Point where the offices of Bombay
magazine were located to meet a young journalist called Rohini
Soman, who worked in the magazine brought out by the India Today
group. Ms Soman, who became Rohini Nilekani, later became the
Bangalore correspondent of Sunday magazine under Vir Sanghvi.
Rohini turns 50 on June 30. Nandan is a top-quality quizzer. He was
part of the IIT Bombay quiz team that came third in the 1979 Mood
Indigo final. A competitor recalls him as being laidback and
generous, unlike the IIT Kanpur team. However, neither IIT team
could answer a question that was flung at them: “What is common
to the first 35 Popes?" The correct answer came from a young boy
from South Indian Education Society: “They were all saints." The
boy turns 51 on June 28. At Patni Computer Services, where
Nandan and N.R. Narayana Murthy became colleagues and friends,
Nandan’s salary was Rs 1,200, the same as his father Mohan Rao
Nilekani earned then
Some facts
 Nandan is not an MBA. He believes that being general
secretary of the IIT Bombay students union was more
education than any B-school could give him. A key test of his
man-management skills came in 1977 when a massive
cyclone hit Andhra Pradesh when the leftwingers on the
campus felt it was inhuman to splurge cash on the college
festival Mood Indigo. Eventually, Nandan found a middle
path. The festival was held, but money was also sent to the
flood-affected.
 When Infosys went public in 1993, no one picked up the
stock. Among the first people Nandan tried to sell the Infy
stock before the Initial Public Offering was his IIT Bombay
senior by one year, co-Kannadiga, and now Union minister,
Jairam Ramesh.
 In 2002, Nandan is famously rumoured to have provided the
editorial inspiration for an India Today cover story that had
nothing to do with Infosys or IT. Suffice it to say, neither the
magazine’s current editor nor its then managing editor are
likely to have sent him their best wishes on his latest
appointment but Phaneesh Murthy is likely to have quietly
chuckled.
 Nandan predicted the results of the 2008 assembly elections
in Karnataka absolutely spot-on. In an SMS to a top TV
honcho, he gave BJP 110 seats; the BJP got 110 seats.
However, despite his prescience, Nandan could not predict
‘Operation Kamala‘.
 Like so many others in the IT sector,
Nandan is a devotee of the Sai Baba of
Shirdi, and even wears a silver ring to boot
 Doesn‘t mind talking about Vatal Nagaraj
and his innovative ways of protests.
 That he signs his bank cheques like these
and they still honour it!
CAREER
 Nandan Nilekani, after graduating from IIT Bombay in 1978,
joined Mumbai-based Patni Computer Systems where he was
interviewed by N.R. Narayana Murthy. Three years later, in 1981,
Murthy walked out of Patni following a disagreement with one of
the Patni brothers. His entire division walked out with him. The
defectors decided to start their own company, Infosys Nilekani
became the Chief Executive Officer of Infosys in March 2002,
taking over from Murthy. Nilekani served as CEO of the company
from March 2002 to April 2007, when he relinquished his position
to his colleague Kris Gopalakrishnan, becoming Co-Chairman.
 He left Infosys on 9 July 2009 to serve as the chairperson of the
Unique Identification Authority of India, in the rank of a cabinet
minister under invitation from the Prime Minister of India, Dr.
Manmohan Singh. He co-founded India’s National Association of
Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) as well as the
Bangalore Chapter of The Ind US Entrepreneurs (TiE). He
appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on March 18, 2009
to promote his book "Imagining India." He has been a speaker at
the prestigious TED conference where he talked about his ideas
for India's future . He has an estimated net worth of the Indian
rupee equivalent of US$1.3 billion. In 2009, Time magazine placed
Nilekani in the Time 100 list of 'World's Most Influential People'
Nilekani has been extensively quoted in Thomas Friedman's book
The World is Flat.
VISION
It seems Nandan Nilekani and Kapil Sibal are emerging as
the Mascots for a new Congress government and a new
Congress party which is youth friendly. Nandan Nilekani has
expressed himself and pronounced his technocratic 
vision of the so called Unique Identity Project, seeking to
speak to he bureaucrats and the economists at the heart of
Indian government machinery all at once. Attached is the
brief paper in which the visionary Nandan Nilekani spells
out his GRAND VISION for finding a technology fix for
the Identity Starved Indian - as Marie Antoinette of France
would say - Let them eat cakes ". Nilekani has put a lot of
faith in the talent of this country. The talent that made
India the centre of global delivery in IT over the last 15
years has now developed the skills and experience it needs
to apply these learnings at home, he says. "In the next 15
years, these very skills can help us build the kind of
politically and economically inclusive environment that can
take India into a second phase of dramatic, technology-
driven growth," he said.