Nandan Nilekani is currently the Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India. The agencys mandate is to provide the Aadhaar number, which is a unique identity number, to every resident in India. The Aadhaar number is already enabling residents across the country to access some state and central benefits directly and more easily. Nandan was born in Bangalore. His family hails from Sirsi, Karnataka, and their story is a middle-class one. Nandans father was a textile manager, and gave his son the best education he could afford. Thanks to this, Nandan was able to get admission into the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, where he received his Bachelors in electrical engineering. Nandans father emphasized the importance of public service and embracing a larger cause. Throughout Nandans career, these principles – of hard work, and the need to create opportunity for everyone – have informed his choices, and guided his decisions. After his degree, Nandan became a co-founder of Infosys Technologies. Nandan worked for Infosys for twenty-eight years, and in this time, the company created jobs across Karnataka and India. He gave up his role as Infosys co-Chairman in 2009 to take up the government position at the UIDAI, at the invitation of the Prime Minister. In 1999, Nandan also helped develop a broader initiative, the Bangalore Agenda Task Force. The BATF worked with public, private and NGO agencies to help resolve Bangalores infrastructure and governance challenges. As philanthropists, Nandan and his wife Rohini have given away a part of their wealth to various causes. The Nilekanis have invested in education and healthcare. Over the years they have also funded non-profit efforts in water infrastructure, micro-credit, and social research. Nandan is the president of the governing body of NCAER, the National Council of Applied Economic Research, Indias oldest and premier independent economic research institute. He is also a member of the board of governors of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). Nandan was named the Corporate Citizen of the Year at the Asia Business Leaders Award (2004) organized by CNBC. In 2005 he received the prestigious Joseph Schumpeter prize for innovative services in economy, economic sciences and politics. In 2006, Nandan received the Padma Bhushan. Time magazine listed him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2006 and 2009. He is the author of Imagining India, which was one of the finalists for the FT-Goldman Sachs Book Award for the year 2009. Foreign Policy magazine listed him as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2010. Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) Over the course of his career, Nandan helped create jobs for 400,000 people. During this time, he also began to think about the problems of his city, Bangalore. He started to think about what he could do to help everyone access better services, and have better infrastructure. When a city develops as rapidly as Bangalore, it requires solutions that are responsive, and that understand the growing complexity of the city. With the Bangalore Agenda Task Force in 1999, thats what Nandan and his team did. They brought together the people who had the talent and the answers, from across the public, private and non-profit sectors - to work for better solutions to our citys problems. The BATF discovered enthusiastic, committed people everywhere – in government, in the private sector and non-profits, and among Bangalores citizens. And they found people who saw the cause as bigger than their differences. With the Bangalore Agenda Task Force, thats what Nandan and his team did. They brought together the people who had the talent and the answers, from across the public, private and non-profit sectors –to work for better solutions to our citys problems. The BATF discovered enthusiastic, committed people everywhere – in government, in the private sector, non-profits, and among Bangalores citizens. And they found people who saw the broader cause as bigger than their differences. Since it was clear that the solutions to the citys problems would not come from one source or organization, officials from such local civic bodies as the Bangalore Mahanagar Palike and the Bangalore Development Authority, among others, worked shoulder-to-shoulder with young professionals, academics, and bureaucrats, united in their enthusiasm to build a better Bangalore. BATF operated on the principles of transparency and accountability. Every six months, a BATF summit was held, an event which was open to the general public and attracted a large number of people. All the BATF stakeholders were required to report progress in six month intervals and outline their plans for the remainder of the year. The summit provided recognition and acknowledgement for the efforts of the BATF members. Importantly, it also provided measurable outcomes for the work done. The BATF stands as a shining example of what is possible when civil society engages with civic authorities to improve urban infrastructure.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 09:16:40 +0000
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