Murthy hands over Infy reins to Nilekani

"Miles to go before we sleep" would be the sentiment with which NR Narayana Murthy ends a career which made him one of the greatest achievers that independent India has known.

He recently told an audience, "Real progress in India has not taken place simply because the reforms have not touched the poor people. Unless you address the basic needs of the poorest of the poor, which are decent primary and secondary education, health care and nutrition, reforms make no sense."

There was no big ceremony to mark Murthy's 60th birthday "" also the day that he stepped down from the executive chairmanship of Infosys Technologies, handing over the baton to chief lieutenant Nandan M Nilekani.

Murthy has indicated that he would now spend more time at the corporate university that Infosys has set up in Mysore, attend to his public engagements, which would continue, and catch up on the technical literature that has been moving forward rapidly.

But as his recent speeches have indicated, he may well be heading towards a more public role. Never a person to shrink back from publicly saying what he has felt when it was for the greater good, be it on reservations or the infrastructure mess in Bangalore, he may well emerge as a public figure in national life.

The substance of the public policy that he will espouse is implicit in what he had to say recently during the 25th anniversary celebrations of Infosys.

He called the firm "a shining example of all the good that came out of liberalisation. There are a few good entrepreneurs and for them to succeed they require an incentive. That is the Infosys lesson." Murthy can thus be expected to keep speaking up for incentives that will unleash the potential of Indian entrepreneurship.

Murthy will of course continue to mentor Infosys which has put India on the international map. Nasdaq President Robert Greifeld recently recalled that "Infosys was the first company from India to list on the Nasdaq," and that it was Murthy who had "led the company admirably."

At Infosys the challenges will, if anything, get tougher with time. The firm took nearly 23 years to reach a topline of $1 billion, less than 23 months to reach the $2 billion mark and barely a year more to reach $3 billion. Maintaining such a pace will require every conceivable effort and the best advice in the world.

What Nandan Nilekani will have going for him is a leadership team that has remained almost entirely intact for 28 years, his own proven customer-focused and "cerebral" capabilities, and of course the best advice in the world from Murthy.