The Biggest Challenges for India’s Tech Leaders

In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Nilekani wasn’t eager to elaborate on the Parekh scandal, but he discussed Infosys’ path forward, broader trends in the technology industry, and wrestling with questions of privacy and security when he joined India’s government to develop Aadhaar, its highly controversial national ID program.

Whistleblowers have accused Salil Parekh of encouraging fudging of accounts and misrepresenting margins on large deals, among other crimes. What’s going on?

All I can say is that the board has initiated an investigation, and I’d like to wait for the findings to come in.

More broadly, then, what’s the outlook for India’s IT companies?

The global technology outsourcing market is at an inflection point. In every type of industry the world’s big companies have to transform themselves to become more digital, more agile, more AI-driven. That presents a huge opportunity for the IT services industry. But it means firms will have to reinvent themselves.

What are the biggest opportunities for Infosys and its peers?

Large enterprises want to use big data and artificial intelligence for customer intimacy, predictive diagnosis. We work with the world’s top companies who are leaders in their fields.

Big data and AI can raise privacy concerns, too, like the biometric system behind Aadhaar’s national ID network.

Big data-based applications certainly require safeguards. As far as Aadhaar is concerned, it meets all the privacy requirements, and the Supreme Court has upheld that. About 1.2 billion Indians are enrolled on Aadhaar. Hundreds of millions get their welfare benefits through Aadhaar. It’s deeply embedded in society. That success is now being globally replicated. I just returned from Washington, where I’m part of the advisory group at the World Bank, called Identification for Development, to help other countries think about identity. There were 20 to 30 countries all interested. It’s becoming a more global phenomenon, and they see India as a role model.

Is that helping to accelerate the shift toward digital payments in India?

All digital payments are growing—credit card, debit card, and so on. Google Pay, Amazon Pay, Walmart’s PhonePe, and Paytm are all innovating. When WhatsApp Pay comes out of its pilot and is available to everyone, it’s going to change the game. We’ll hit a tipping point in the next two or three years, and we will start printing less cash.

You’ve been an entrepreneur and an investor in startups. Why hasn’t India’s startup scene produced a single global brand?

In the past year the public reaction to companies like Uber, Lyft, and WeWork has shown that you must have not just a fantastic business model, but also cash flow and profitability. Those rules are permeating into the Indian startup ecosystem and forcing founders to be capital-efficient. Big tech companies will happen. It’s just a matter of time.

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