The appointment of Nandan Nilekani, one of the seven founders of Infosys Technologies, marks the rare occasion (could it be the first time in post-liberalisation India?) that a corporate leader is being tapped by government at the topmost level. The case of Sam Pitroda is not really comparable because he came in for a specialised job as a telecom specialist. I think that is not the case with Nilekani, who will head an institution that will create and issue national ID cards to a billion-plus population.

In previous years, many corporate executives – among them Vijay Mallya and Rahul Bajaj – have served in Parliament but their roles have been limited. They have defined their positions narrowly, or used the position to serve their business interests and at best considered it a part-time job. The critical thing is: nobody has fully plunged into public service, and all the time also managed their businesses.  Rajeev Chandrasekharan, formerly of the BPL, is a recent exception because he doesn’t hold an executive business post.

Still, Nilekani’s position is extraordinary. He has virtually retired from Infosys, a company with which he has been associated for three long, and extremely fruitful, decades. At 54, he still is young, able, willing and surely committed to public service, and will be able to do so for many years to come. Nilekani, as he promised in television interviews after news of his appointment, will bring transparency and the high ethical standards he, along with his mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy, has established at Infosys.

Nilekani’s appointment has been welcomed widely, as it should be. But I wouldn’t gush too much, as some seem to because I think he is going to occupy a position that is far lower than what he should have been offered. Reports suggest Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi nixed a move to make Nilekani the human resource development minister, the same fiat that eliminated Montek Singh Ahluwalia from the race for the finance minister’s job. It is sad that Sonia should seek to protect the ministerial positions for career politicians when many able technocrats are available. There is also a report that suggests Nilekani turned down an initial offer from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to join the Planning Commission. It is not clear if it was the same position that he is accepting now (because the national ID project also strangely comes under the Planning Commission) or a different one.

Nilekani, by all accounts, has awesome networking (probably evangelistic) skills. At IIT, Mumbai, his ability to put together their annual festival was apparently legendary, even though he got the wooden spoon when it came to academics. In recent years, this was in evidence at Davos during a World Economic Forum meeting where he promoted India as a brand. In his recent book, “Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century,” Nilekani outlined several new thoughts that he believes will transform the country. I am thinking he is not going to be able to push any of his ideas – however good, bad or indifferent they may be – in his job of issuing ID cards to me and you. Sure, he is going to design the technology to drive the program, and make the entire process efficient. But what more can he really bring to this job? I have to disagree with Narayana Murthy (“I rank this project on the scale of importance and impact with Sam Pitroda’s telecom project, M S Swaminathan’s green revolution and Prof. Yashpal’s SITES (satellite instruction & TV experiment) project,” he was quoted as saying in The Times of India ) on this one.

I think we can realistically hope that Nilekani will use this as a stepping stone and walk into positions from which he can bring about real change to this country. He is young enough to do so, and doubtless able too.