Nilekani, in a interview published on the Web site of New York Times on Saturday, spoke about Infosys's success, and underlying secular trends like technology and demographics.
"You can't stop these things. They're all megatrends," Nilekani said. "If you go back to the 1830s, India and China were 50 per cent of the world's GDP (gross domestic product). Then they missed the entire revolution of industry. So, if you take a long view of this game, it's just part of the process. What's happening is pretty fundamental," Nilekani said.
Speaking about the move by Infosys to consulting, Nilekani said it was a step up the value chain. "Our customers want us to be good at sitting down with them, understanding their business challenges, helping them devise a solution and then implementing it. They expect us to go up the chain in terms of relationships and business value."
Nilekani was vocal when he spoke about the battle between the business models of Infosys and other IT firms and big consulting firms like IBM and Accenture. "This is a battle of business models. We believe that, at the end of the day, we have a disruptive business model that is a threat to the existing business model. Older companies will have to reconfigure themselves to look more like us if they're going to be globally competitive.
"In any software project, we do 30 per cent of the work in the United States and 70 per cent in India. Our competitors do 100 per cent of the work in a particular location. We have sort of become masters of delivering high value and high quality at lower cost. On top of that, we're trying to add consulting. Their challenge is to retain their relationships and business knowledge while reconfiguring their internal operations to become as efficient as us."
Nilekani also explained how the Infosys business model was more creative and exciting than that on hand for the big boys of the consulting world.
"I think the challenge is fundamentally different. For us, it's about hiring, growth and building a brand. For them, it's about restructuring the work force. I think, frankly, I wouldn't want to do that job because it's very painful whereas this is exciting."
Does he feel odd to lecture Americans on the joys of capitalism? Nilekani at his best: "You guys told us for so many years to cut out the socialist rubbish and go to free markets. We came to free markets, and now you're telling us, "Stop, don't come."
(Above) Nandan Nilekani. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images