![](https://img.etimg.com/thumb/msid-22926022,width-300,height-225,imgsize-23255,resizemode-75/.jpg)
A man who described himself as `quite unelectable' just five years ago, in the very first page of his influential book 'Imaging India - Ideas for the new century,' today is set to bridge the huge divide between bazaar and rajneeti by contesting elections.
Nandan Nilekani's position in 2008, when he was still at Infosys as co-chairman, was that unlike in the US where a Michael Bloomberg who ran a very large, successful firm could contest elections and become a mayor of New York city, in India the very fact of him being an entrepreneur made him a "very long shot in Indian politics."
What has happened in half a decade to convert the long odds into short ones?
First, a serendipitous chance to work with the government. Second, a realization that one's ability to influence change from the outside of the government is limited. Third and the most critical; the desire to get political legitimacy to become the change agent by winning a popular election.
Until his stint at the centre as the head of UIDAI, Nilekani had positioned himself mainly as an 'ideas' man, believing that as someone from the corporate world his 'contribution to change' was limited and could only be 'in the realm of ideas.' He joined numerous government panels, helped bring out reports, wrote opinion articles, and lucidly communicated his ideas at influential fora - World Economic Forum in Davos, in particular the 2006 edition - and to influential people: that Thomas Friedman's celebrated book `The World is Flat,' came out of a conversation with Nilekani is part of business folklore.
Having transformed one powerful idea - an ID card for every Indian which can be the basis for the delivery of targeted subsidies and social welfare programmes -- into action, Nilekani having made his name, fame and money now would like to work on bringing "large scale, positive change in India," say sources close to the politician-in-the making.
In a sense his whole career - be it the Infosys stint or the Aadhaar gig - has been about bringing large transformational change in different ways. Nilekani has always held that Infosys, though a massively successful company, was "about an idea"; an idea that a bunch of technology professionals could run a successful business while applying the highest standards of corporate governance; an idea that wealth could be created in one generation in an ethical manner. Under Aadhar over 400 million cards have been issued and while there have been hitches in the process - both administrative and political - it has generated enough momentum to become the de-facto basis for large governmental schemes.
Nilekani is thought to now believe that he has hit the "glass ceiling of change he can enable without popular legitimacy," say sources close to him about his decision to contest elections.
Expect Nilekani to bring a very engineering approach to his Lok Sabha campaign. And, heavy use of technology. Nilekani had very readily admitted that he even wrote his book like a software program: "When you write a large, software application which has to perform a major function, you divide it into sections. Then design the modules. I applied the same concept. I said, I have these 18 ideas, I saw a pattern in the ideas," he had told TOI at the time of the book launch. He also did frequency analysis to see if he had over-quoted someone. After 126 interviews, 18 months of research and writing weekends at Coonoor and Bangalore, the book was ready. A similar methodical approach will now be applied to winning the election.
Barack Obama style tech-savvy campaign is most definitely on the cards. TOI's sister paper, Bangalore Mirror, has reported that a technical team - code named Ajay -- is already in place.The Obama campaign used social media extensively - for example by liking the My Barack Obama page, voters gave access to their Facebook info, which the campaign then harvested. Volunteers could see their personal statistics updated in real time—money raised; calls attempted, conversations held, one-on-one meetings convened. A scoreboard allowed volunteers to see how they stacked-up against their peers. The campaign used this data to gauge which field offices hit their goals and which ones needed more encouragement.
Amidst all the technical glitz that the Nilekani campaign is expected to unleash, it seems ironical that the path to the probable May election fight against Ananth Kumar of BJP was, perhaps, paved by the one thing that really bothers Bangaloreans: horrible roads. It's the question asked by a New York-based client of Infosys', when visiting Nilekani at his office in Electronics City, "If you can have such good roads inside the Infosys campus, why are the roads outside so terrible?" that triggered Nilekani's engagement with the world outside the rarefied one inhabited by the country's billionaires.
Nandan Nilekani's position in 2008, when he was still at Infosys as co-chairman, was that unlike in the US where a Michael Bloomberg who ran a very large, successful firm could contest elections and become a mayor of New York city, in India the very fact of him being an entrepreneur made him a "very long shot in Indian politics."
What has happened in half a decade to convert the long odds into short ones?
First, a serendipitous chance to work with the government. Second, a realization that one's ability to influence change from the outside of the government is limited. Third and the most critical; the desire to get political legitimacy to become the change agent by winning a popular election.
Until his stint at the centre as the head of UIDAI, Nilekani had positioned himself mainly as an 'ideas' man, believing that as someone from the corporate world his 'contribution to change' was limited and could only be 'in the realm of ideas.' He joined numerous government panels, helped bring out reports, wrote opinion articles, and lucidly communicated his ideas at influential fora - World Economic Forum in Davos, in particular the 2006 edition - and to influential people: that Thomas Friedman's celebrated book `The World is Flat,' came out of a conversation with Nilekani is part of business folklore.
Having transformed one powerful idea - an ID card for every Indian which can be the basis for the delivery of targeted subsidies and social welfare programmes -- into action, Nilekani having made his name, fame and money now would like to work on bringing "large scale, positive change in India," say sources close to the politician-in-the making.
In a sense his whole career - be it the Infosys stint or the Aadhaar gig - has been about bringing large transformational change in different ways. Nilekani has always held that Infosys, though a massively successful company, was "about an idea"; an idea that a bunch of technology professionals could run a successful business while applying the highest standards of corporate governance; an idea that wealth could be created in one generation in an ethical manner. Under Aadhar over 400 million cards have been issued and while there have been hitches in the process - both administrative and political - it has generated enough momentum to become the de-facto basis for large governmental schemes.
Nilekani is thought to now believe that he has hit the "glass ceiling of change he can enable without popular legitimacy," say sources close to him about his decision to contest elections.
Expect Nilekani to bring a very engineering approach to his Lok Sabha campaign. And, heavy use of technology. Nilekani had very readily admitted that he even wrote his book like a software program: "When you write a large, software application which has to perform a major function, you divide it into sections. Then design the modules. I applied the same concept. I said, I have these 18 ideas, I saw a pattern in the ideas," he had told TOI at the time of the book launch. He also did frequency analysis to see if he had over-quoted someone. After 126 interviews, 18 months of research and writing weekends at Coonoor and Bangalore, the book was ready. A similar methodical approach will now be applied to winning the election.
Amidst all the technical glitz that the Nilekani campaign is expected to unleash, it seems ironical that the path to the probable May election fight against Ananth Kumar of BJP was, perhaps, paved by the one thing that really bothers Bangaloreans: horrible roads. It's the question asked by a New York-based client of Infosys', when visiting Nilekani at his office in Electronics City, "If you can have such good roads inside the Infosys campus, why are the roads outside so terrible?" that triggered Nilekani's engagement with the world outside the rarefied one inhabited by the country's billionaires.
(Catch all the Business News, Breaking News, Budget 2024 Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)
Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online.
Read More News on
(Catch all the Business News, Breaking News, Budget 2024 Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)
Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online.