I was raised as a pretty poor farm girl in Wisconsin and always thought of upgrading myself. So I over-achieved! I was lucky...” A characteristically short bio from Carol Ann Bartz, the feisty chief executive of the $7.2 billion internet company Yahoo! and editor of ET’s Emerging Business and IT page today. But there's more to the lady than her reputedly colourful language and distinct management style that has roused the veteran internet company from its supposed stupor.
She battled cancer to take her previous company Autodesk from a mere vertical applications company into a diversified yet focussed $1.4 billion software giant. When she stepped into the top job at Yahoo! this January she had knee surgery. "So, I've decided that I won't start another new job — that knee replacement hurt much more than cancer!” she laughs, but the gritty spirit shows.
Considering she took her time to agree to Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang's repeated pleas to come out of retirement, it was obviously more than glasses of her favourite cheap white wine that made her say yes. The tedium of her golf handicap improving only from 40 to 28 and days filled with gardening, photography and reading were only partly responsible. It was obviously the Autodesk-like challenge of clearing up and focusing while steering the Sunnyvale, California-based company out of a financial slump.
And the first big decision she took reflected it: a decade-long alliance with Microsoft in the search space. “Yahoo currently has a market share of about 20%; Microsoft has about 8% in search. Combined, we will have over 28%,” says Bartz. “But the two will exist as separate brands, maintain their identities. Yet, users will have more data to go after when they search — it’ll make a Yahoo! search deeper and better, and we expect regulatory approvals on the alliance by Q1, 2010.”
An India fan who has been to this country five times before, on her first visit as Yahoo! CEO she is predictably clear about her plans here too. And it has nothing to do with her interest in Mughal history and elephants... She wants in on the government’s Unique Identity Project, and more. She met the PM about it and her friend Nandan Nilekani, stressing Yahoo’s strength. “It involves a huge database and we at Yahoo! have expertise in handling huge amounts of data,” she reveals.
Education and training, what internet can do and how mobile phones can transform the internet experience, are obviously also target areas - and since India is Yahoo's biggest R&D centre after Sunnyvale, more than a supporting role is on the cards. "Entire products are already developed here, not parts of products. Our cloud computing initiative, video search ability and the total search monetization project are being done by Yahoo! in India," she emphasises, seeing Yahoo developing even more tools out of the India centre.
But the main trend this "over-achieving" tech pioneer (she got her computer science degree in 1971) sees is the web getting more collaborative and yet personalised. "It's not just about gathering information but also sharing, and about getting each others opinion," she says as she decides on 'collaborative internet' as the theme for her EBIT page today.
Economic Times
Showing posts with label Nandan Nilekani. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nandan Nilekani. Show all posts
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Can mobile phones authenticate your identity?
Move over passport and PAN card! Now the mobile phone will be used to verify your credentials, for authentication at banks, gas connection centres or while providing rural jobs, Unique Identification Authority chief Nandan Nilekani said Saturday.
"Our project will provide a unique identification (UID) number not a card. The authentication will be made by using mobile phones," Nilekani said.
"Once the numbers are issued, we will go for online authentication. Lets say, you are asking for a job under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). The authorities will send your number to the designated points through mobile. A message will be returned saying 'Yes' or 'No'," Nilekani said.
"This will verify whether you are the person you are claiming to be," the former Infosys managing director said, delivering the Foundation Day lecture of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
"This will not require much details to be divulged. It will help provide portability to our farmers, labourers. When they move from state to state, this UID will help them get employment without hassles."
He said banks, mobile service providers, LPG gas connection counters and many more partner organisations can use this UID to verify their customer. "With the growing mobile phone network, this will become an easy process for authorities to verify people."
"It will cut down the fake or duplicate records. This will enhance the efficiency of flagship programmes like NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), NRHM (National Rural Health Mission) and other such projects," Nilekani stressed.
He said his team will roll out the first batch of UIDs in the next 12 to 18 months. "In five years from now, we will issue at least 600 million UIDs," Nilekani said, terming it a Herculean task and a major challenge.
Agencies
"Our project will provide a unique identification (UID) number not a card. The authentication will be made by using mobile phones," Nilekani said.
"Once the numbers are issued, we will go for online authentication. Lets say, you are asking for a job under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). The authorities will send your number to the designated points through mobile. A message will be returned saying 'Yes' or 'No'," Nilekani said.
"This will verify whether you are the person you are claiming to be," the former Infosys managing director said, delivering the Foundation Day lecture of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
"This will not require much details to be divulged. It will help provide portability to our farmers, labourers. When they move from state to state, this UID will help them get employment without hassles."
He said banks, mobile service providers, LPG gas connection counters and many more partner organisations can use this UID to verify their customer. "With the growing mobile phone network, this will become an easy process for authorities to verify people."
"It will cut down the fake or duplicate records. This will enhance the efficiency of flagship programmes like NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), NRHM (National Rural Health Mission) and other such projects," Nilekani stressed.
He said his team will roll out the first batch of UIDs in the next 12 to 18 months. "In five years from now, we will issue at least 600 million UIDs," Nilekani said, terming it a Herculean task and a major challenge.
Agencies
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Mentors Murthy, Nilekani, Premji To Help IISc Students become entrepreneurs
Learning from mentors who change the way you live and think is the chance of a lifetime. Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai and Satish Dhawan did it in the past. Azim Premji, N R Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani and C Ramadorai are doing it now. If you couldn’t spend time with greats of the past, how about taking lessons from legends of the present?
The IISc Alumni Association has come up with a cracker of an idea — it is setting up a ‘mentoring system’ in which great entrepreneurs (initially) will act as mentors or thinkers to students and research scholars, who wish to launch small firms or startups, or turn their research into technology and eventually take the entrepreneurial route in life.
The mentors will be from across the globe, including Bangalore, and will keep in touch with students identified and selected for mentoring.
The man behind the idea, Association president Dr K R Srinivasan, told TOI that “already a few top people” had agreed to be mentors. “They include people not associated with IISc but who can, and are, willing to make a contribution to IISc. They are people in the league of Narayana Murthy...”
Net connect
Srinivasan said a website will connect the mentor and student/ scholar in the first phase of interaction. “The website will have the mentor’s profile and expertise and the student’s request. A software will bring together the request and expertise to see if they match. If they do, then the mentor and student will get into live interaction. So interests of both have to match.”
The mentors will act as thinkers and shape the form and direction of a project that the student hopes to turn into a product or start-up company. “The mentors will take time out and be in personal touch with the student or mentee. They will make concrete suggestions, offer advice, show routes that could be taken. The system will be open to IISc and IIT students, initially. If it turns out positive and productive, it will be extended to engineering colleges too. We wish to leverage the strengths of alumni as well as non-alumni, who are genuinely interested in turning ideas into products of some sort,” Srinivasan said.
Infosys, Wipro and TCS are not just companies but stories of extraordinary entrepreneurship and creativity in an atmosphere of red tape, bureauracy, large-scale public lethargy and corruption. Some of the great space labs, like the ones at Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Bangalore, Mumbai and Sriharikota, were creative battles against dormant mindsets. IISc Alumni Association hopes to replicate some of these stories.
Timesofindia.com
The IISc Alumni Association has come up with a cracker of an idea — it is setting up a ‘mentoring system’ in which great entrepreneurs (initially) will act as mentors or thinkers to students and research scholars, who wish to launch small firms or startups, or turn their research into technology and eventually take the entrepreneurial route in life.
The mentors will be from across the globe, including Bangalore, and will keep in touch with students identified and selected for mentoring.
The man behind the idea, Association president Dr K R Srinivasan, told TOI that “already a few top people” had agreed to be mentors. “They include people not associated with IISc but who can, and are, willing to make a contribution to IISc. They are people in the league of Narayana Murthy...”
Net connect
Srinivasan said a website will connect the mentor and student/ scholar in the first phase of interaction. “The website will have the mentor’s profile and expertise and the student’s request. A software will bring together the request and expertise to see if they match. If they do, then the mentor and student will get into live interaction. So interests of both have to match.”
The mentors will act as thinkers and shape the form and direction of a project that the student hopes to turn into a product or start-up company. “The mentors will take time out and be in personal touch with the student or mentee. They will make concrete suggestions, offer advice, show routes that could be taken. The system will be open to IISc and IIT students, initially. If it turns out positive and productive, it will be extended to engineering colleges too. We wish to leverage the strengths of alumni as well as non-alumni, who are genuinely interested in turning ideas into products of some sort,” Srinivasan said.
Infosys, Wipro and TCS are not just companies but stories of extraordinary entrepreneurship and creativity in an atmosphere of red tape, bureauracy, large-scale public lethargy and corruption. Some of the great space labs, like the ones at Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Bangalore, Mumbai and Sriharikota, were creative battles against dormant mindsets. IISc Alumni Association hopes to replicate some of these stories.
Timesofindia.com
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Will the IT industry miss Nanadan Nilekani?
Infosys Technologies' Co-Chairman Nandan Nilekani was today appointed as Chairman of an Authority with Cabinet minister's rank to steer the ambitious scheme for creating a multi-purpose unique identification database of citizens.
54-year-old Nilekani, the co-founder of the leading IT firm along with N R Narayana Murthy 28 years ago, will head the Unique Identification Database Authority of India (UIDAI) under the aegis of the Planning Commission.
He will have the rank and status of the Cabinet minister, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.
The scheme is aimed at providing a unique identity to the targeted population of the flagship schemes to ensure that the benefits reach them, she said.
A visionary and a thinker, Nilekani, who gets an annual compensation of over USD 1.75 lakh and whose net worth is USD 1.3 billion, resigned his membership of Infosys Board of Directors following his appointment.
His colleagues in Infosys top management Mohandas Pai and Kris Gopalakrishnan said his exit from would be a loss to the organisation but a gain to the country.
Announcing his appointment, the PMO said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited Nilekani to chair an authority that will create a unique identification database of the country's citizens.
Nilekani, born in Sirsi in Uttara Kannada in northern Karnataka, did his early education in Bangalore and Dharwad before moving to Mumbai to study Electrical Engineering in IIT, Bombay.
The PMO said The functioning of the authority and activities to be performed by the UIA would serve multiple objectives.
The authority shall have the responsibility to lay down plans and policies to implement the unique identification scheme in the country.
It shall own and operate the unique identification number database and be responsible for its updation and maintenance on an ongoing basis.
Sonia said the Authority shall have responsibility to lay down plans and policies to implement the Unique Identification Scheme (UID), shall own and operate the Unique Identification number database and be responsible for its updation and maintenance on an ongoing basis," Soni said.
The Authority will identify the targeted groups for various flagship programmes, she added.
The flagship schemes of the UPA include the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, National Rural Health Mission and Bharat Nirman.
The unique identification number would ensure that any lacuna in these schemes is removed so that the benefits do not reach those they are not meant for.
The Government had earmarked Rs 100 crore in the interim Budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Parliament on February 16 to kickstart its ambitious Unique Identification Project.
The government has been working on improving arrangements to ensure that development deliverables reach the intended beneficiaries, Mukherjee had said.
People may not be screaming his name out in offices, but he has his own fan following and enjoys rock star-like fame. Nandan M Nilekani has clearly emerged as the most famous of those who created India's widely idolised IT company - Infosys.
N R Narayana Murthy has probably had more media coverage but as the key people behind Infosys prepare to hand over control to the next generation of business leaders, it is Nilekani who looks all set to enjoy a great solo career.
Nilekani, 54, is already credited with repainting India's image globally and will now head an authority that will create a unique electronic database of the country's citizens - a project that many see as key to plugging loopholes in implementation of welfare schemes.
As chairperson of the country's Unique Identification Authority, Nilekani would enjoy the rank of Cabinet Minister.
The electrical engineer from IIT, Bombay, who is the Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Infosys Technologies Limited, was named among Time magazine's world's 100 most influential people of 2009 - an honour he secured in 2006 too.
From March 2002 to June 22, 2007, he served as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director and has previously held the posts of President and Chief Operating Officer of the company that he founded, along with Murthy and others, in 1981.
Economictimes & Agencies
54-year-old Nilekani, the co-founder of the leading IT firm along with N R Narayana Murthy 28 years ago, will head the Unique Identification Database Authority of India (UIDAI) under the aegis of the Planning Commission.
He will have the rank and status of the Cabinet minister, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.
The scheme is aimed at providing a unique identity to the targeted population of the flagship schemes to ensure that the benefits reach them, she said.
A visionary and a thinker, Nilekani, who gets an annual compensation of over USD 1.75 lakh and whose net worth is USD 1.3 billion, resigned his membership of Infosys Board of Directors following his appointment.
His colleagues in Infosys top management Mohandas Pai and Kris Gopalakrishnan said his exit from would be a loss to the organisation but a gain to the country.
Announcing his appointment, the PMO said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited Nilekani to chair an authority that will create a unique identification database of the country's citizens.
Nilekani, born in Sirsi in Uttara Kannada in northern Karnataka, did his early education in Bangalore and Dharwad before moving to Mumbai to study Electrical Engineering in IIT, Bombay.
The PMO said The functioning of the authority and activities to be performed by the UIA would serve multiple objectives.
The authority shall have the responsibility to lay down plans and policies to implement the unique identification scheme in the country.
It shall own and operate the unique identification number database and be responsible for its updation and maintenance on an ongoing basis.
Sonia said the Authority shall have responsibility to lay down plans and policies to implement the Unique Identification Scheme (UID), shall own and operate the Unique Identification number database and be responsible for its updation and maintenance on an ongoing basis," Soni said.
The Authority will identify the targeted groups for various flagship programmes, she added.
The flagship schemes of the UPA include the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, National Rural Health Mission and Bharat Nirman.
The unique identification number would ensure that any lacuna in these schemes is removed so that the benefits do not reach those they are not meant for.
The Government had earmarked Rs 100 crore in the interim Budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Parliament on February 16 to kickstart its ambitious Unique Identification Project.
The government has been working on improving arrangements to ensure that development deliverables reach the intended beneficiaries, Mukherjee had said.
People may not be screaming his name out in offices, but he has his own fan following and enjoys rock star-like fame. Nandan M Nilekani has clearly emerged as the most famous of those who created India's widely idolised IT company - Infosys.
N R Narayana Murthy has probably had more media coverage but as the key people behind Infosys prepare to hand over control to the next generation of business leaders, it is Nilekani who looks all set to enjoy a great solo career.
Nilekani, 54, is already credited with repainting India's image globally and will now head an authority that will create a unique electronic database of the country's citizens - a project that many see as key to plugging loopholes in implementation of welfare schemes.
As chairperson of the country's Unique Identification Authority, Nilekani would enjoy the rank of Cabinet Minister.
The electrical engineer from IIT, Bombay, who is the Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Infosys Technologies Limited, was named among Time magazine's world's 100 most influential people of 2009 - an honour he secured in 2006 too.
From March 2002 to June 22, 2007, he served as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director and has previously held the posts of President and Chief Operating Officer of the company that he founded, along with Murthy and others, in 1981.
Economictimes & Agencies
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Is Infosys eyeing acquisitions in the US?
Indian software major Infosys Technologies Ltd expects to find acquisition opportunities in the US during the downturn, co-chairman Nandan Nilekani was quoted as saying.
"Acquisitions will definitely be very accessible in this market from a price point of view," Nilekani told the Wall Street Journal in an interview. "If it makes sense, we'll do it."
Companies that operate in the healthcare and pharmaceuticals sectors might make particularly interesting targets, he said, adding that Infosys has $2 billion in cash and no debt.
In the interview, Nilekani reiterated Infosys's earlier guidance of about 12 per cent revenue growth for the fiscal year ending March 31. That would be a sharp deceleration from growth of 35 per cent, as measured by the US accounting rules, in the year ended March 31, 2008.
Nilekani told the Journal that potential customers are holding back both because of the economic crisis and a rise in protectionist sentiment.
On the economic crisis, Nilekani said "I've never seen this level of lack of clarity." He said executives are "more focused on short-term tactical issues" than making bigger decisions about outsourcing.
In response, Nilekani said Infosys is working with customers on alternative payment arrangements, including some that would link fees to business results. Other customers are asking to pay on a per-transaction basis, rather than a lump sum for a system.
Nilekani said rising protectionist sentiment in the US also is affecting customers' decision-making about outsourcing.
The economic stimulus bill, for example, includes a provision preventing participants in the US' financial bailout programme from hiring workers with H-1B visas, which are commonly used by the non-US outsourcing companies.
"Political issues have become more pre-eminent in our conversations," he added.
Partly for that reason, he told the journal that he does not know whether more the US firms will lay off domestic workers and move more jobs to India, as International Business Machines Corp plans to do, Nilekani said.
Agencies
"Acquisitions will definitely be very accessible in this market from a price point of view," Nilekani told the Wall Street Journal in an interview. "If it makes sense, we'll do it."
Companies that operate in the healthcare and pharmaceuticals sectors might make particularly interesting targets, he said, adding that Infosys has $2 billion in cash and no debt.
In the interview, Nilekani reiterated Infosys's earlier guidance of about 12 per cent revenue growth for the fiscal year ending March 31. That would be a sharp deceleration from growth of 35 per cent, as measured by the US accounting rules, in the year ended March 31, 2008.
Nilekani told the Journal that potential customers are holding back both because of the economic crisis and a rise in protectionist sentiment.
On the economic crisis, Nilekani said "I've never seen this level of lack of clarity." He said executives are "more focused on short-term tactical issues" than making bigger decisions about outsourcing.
In response, Nilekani said Infosys is working with customers on alternative payment arrangements, including some that would link fees to business results. Other customers are asking to pay on a per-transaction basis, rather than a lump sum for a system.
Nilekani said rising protectionist sentiment in the US also is affecting customers' decision-making about outsourcing.
The economic stimulus bill, for example, includes a provision preventing participants in the US' financial bailout programme from hiring workers with H-1B visas, which are commonly used by the non-US outsourcing companies.
"Political issues have become more pre-eminent in our conversations," he added.
Partly for that reason, he told the journal that he does not know whether more the US firms will lay off domestic workers and move more jobs to India, as International Business Machines Corp plans to do, Nilekani said.
Agencies
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