IT captains hail Nilekani and Balakrishnan's political foray

As IT poster boys Nandan Nilekaniand V Balakrishnan face electoral test next week, captains oftheir industry have hailed their plunge into the murky watersof politics, saying it will strengthen democracy.

Interestingly, both Balakrishnan and Nilekani, who wasthe Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India andthe face of UPA government’s flagship ‘Aadhar’ programme, areformer Infoscians. It is also their first attempt at enteringthe lower house of Parliament.

[caption id=“attachment_80266” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  V Balakrishnan and Nandan Nilekani in this file photo.[/caption]

While Nilekani, a co-founder and former CEO of Infosys,is in the poll fray from Bangalore South on Congress ticket.He is pitted against five-time and sitting BJP MP Ananth Kumarand Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Nina Nayak, among others.

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Balakrishnan, a former Infosys Board member, is fightingon AAP ticket against BJP’s sitting MP P C Mohan and Congress’youth wing chief Rizwan Arshad from Bangalore Central.Polling in both constituencies is scheduled on April 17.

“Excellent, I’m really happy that engineers and othersare participating in the initiative to strengthen ourdemocracy,” Infosys Executive Chairman NR Narayana Murthy toldPTI.

The co-founder of India’s second largest softwareservices exporter stressed that there is a need to workethically and honestly with the state and central governmentsto make public governance strong, robust and enduring.iGate President and CEO Ashok Vemuri said: “I thinkespecially for India there is a need for competentprofessionals who have a proven track record to enter intopublic space.”

Vemuri, who before joining the US-based outsourcing firmlast September was Infosys’s head of North America, added thatit is not a new trend in any part of the world for successfulpeople to get into public life.

“I actually salute the two of them (Nilekani andBalakrishnan) and that they are willing to translate theirprofessionalism, their competencies, their desires to helppeople into something as constructive as what they are doing,“he said.

PTI