Infosys chief executive officer S. Gopalakrishnan said it was premature to comment on the company’s participation, but added that it was indeed looking at government projects. Although Nilekani has resigned from the board of Infosys, he still continues to remain a shareholder in the company. Gopalakrishnan said that “given that (both) Infosys and Nandan have valid checks on integrity, if it comes to that (conflict of interest if Infosys bids for the project), we will see to it is addressed.”
Nilekani’s resignation would be effective on 9 July, Infosys said in a statement. “As a company that has always put the interest of society ahead of itself, Infosys will accept his absence with a sense of duty to a larger cause, but with deep sadness at the departure of one of her most illustrious sons,” said N.R. Narayana Murthy, chairman and chief mentor of Infosys and a close associate of Nilekani for close to three decades.
Unlike the US, where business leaders routinely accept appointments in the government, few Indian executives go on to work for the government. While numerous businessmen such as Vijay Mallya, Sajjan Jindal, Rahul Bajaj and Rajeev Chandrasekhar have entered politics and and have become parliamentarians, very few have worked in executive capacities in the government.
“I hope it is a beginning of a trend. Business in this country is not looked upon as the source of public service. It is linked with profiteering and private gain and it is all illegal. This should change,” said N. Balasubramanian, chairman of centre for corporate governance and citizenship at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. “Nandan’s resignation from the board reduces conflict of interest. Very few industrialists (in public office) take that view.”
Nilekani’s exit comes at a crucial time for the company. The ongoing slowdown in the US and Europe has meant that Infosys’ customers have cut back on their IT spending.
Infosys has projected that in the current year its revenues will be between Rs22,066 crore and Rs22,098 crore, a marginal 1.7-5.7% growth, against the 30% growth in its revenue to Rs21,693 crore for fiscal 2009.
Infosys was only the second company for which Nilekani worked.
Son of a textile mill’s manager, Nilekani graduated as an electrical engineer from IIT Mumbai and met Infosys’ other co-founders while working at Patni Computers Ltd. In 1981, along with six other co-founders he launched Infosys. In the initial years, the suave and articulate Nilekani spearheaded the operations of the company in the crucial North America market and was based in the US. In 2002, he took over as the chief executive officer of the company from Murthy when the industry was struggling to grow post the dot-com bubble. It was under his leadership that the company crossed a billion dollars in revenue.
In 2007, he decided to hand over the chief executive officer’s baton to another co-founder Gopalakrishnan. Since then, as co-chairman, he has been involved in providing strategic inputs to further the company’s growth. In the recent past he has been travelling across the globe to meet large customers of Infosys, drum up new business and to strengthen the company’s brand. He also authored a best-seller, Imagining India.