It's a pride & loss, says Pai
Mohandas Pai, director of HR for Infosys, said that Mr Nilekani had done so to avoid any conflict of interest.
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In an exclusive interview with ET NOW immediately after the channel broke the story of Nandan Nilekani stepping down from Infosys, Mohandas Pai, director of HR for Infosys, said that Mr Nilekani had done so to avoid any conflict of interest. ���It is a mixed feeling of pride and great loss,��� said Mr Pai.
Mr Nilekani has been an important architect of Infosys. Was it really necessary for him to step down from the board?
I think you can���t be working full-time for the government and be on the company board. There could be conflict of interest... a perceived conflict of interest. There will not be actual conflict because you can create Chinese walls. But there could be a perceived conflict of interest. So, we decided that it was best that he step down from the board.
Who steps in to Mr Nilekani���s place?
We have Narayana Murthy as non-whole-time chairman, Kris as our CEO and Shibulal as COO. Nandan was the whole-time chairman. So, there will not be a whole-time chairman for the time being.
We have seen Mr Murthy also similarly involved in many other projects, but he didn���t take such a step.
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He (Nilekani) won���t be on the board. He won���t have any direct relationship with the company. He is a shareholder in the company... he has the right to be a shareholder. What Mr Murthy did was to work in an advisory capacity, but this isn���t an advisory capacity. This is an executive capacity. So there���s a difference between what Mr Murthy did and what Nandan is doing.There have been reports that Infosys is looking to revamp its top brass, promoting younger people.
We have built up a company to handle such contingencies because we believe that we always need to have a succession plan. We need to derisk the management... we have done that .
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