Nilekani advises students to start own ventures

UIDAI chairman encourages students to take ownership of their future rather than merely answer to peer pressure

Nandan Nilekani, chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and Congress ticket aspirant for Bangalore South constituency for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, held an interactive session with college students at the weekend.

Talking to students at the K M Nagraj College in Jayanagar and at the R V Dental College, Nilekani encouraged the students at the colleges to take ownership of their future rather than merely giving in to pressures of their peers and their parents.

His example was from his own circumstances. “You don’t have to start with a wealthy childhood to be successful on your own,” he said.

Giving his own example, he said, “My father was a mill manager. Murthy’s father was a school teacher, and one of Infosys’ other co-founder’s fatheR was a lighthouse keeper. We were all very ordinary people, from modest backgrounds.”

To a question about entrepreneurship from the students, he urged the youngsters to think about starting their own business or venture as a serious career option.

“It gives you the chance not just to build something of your own,” he said, “but also to create jobs for people around you. You get the chance to build something that is lasting and valuable to society.”

A lot of people, he added, avoid making this choice because of the risk involved. “You should ask yourself, what is the worst that can happen?” I asked myself that before deciding on co-founding Infosys, he said.

“And I realised that the worst that could happen was that I would lose three to four years of my career to something that didn’t work. I decided that this was a risk I am willing to take. If you have a good idea, and if you are all right with the worst possible outcome, you should go ahead and take that risk,” Nilekani advised the students.

He said it was this willingness to step outside his comfort zone which allowed him to do the Aadhaar project. As a result, he said: “I got the chance to head a development project that today is the biggest identity platform in the world, and the biggest anti-corruption platform.”