From Infosys EA to VP: The mystery around Rohan Murthy's designation

In early June, in what was definitely the biggest business leadership story in a while, NR Narayana Murthy had made a comeback as Infosys chairman.

NRN in his signature humility said that his position would be to add value to CEO Shibulal's thinking. However, Rohan Murthy's presence, even if as Executive Assistant had lead to much buzz and speculative chatter about what Catamaran's (the fund that Murthy set up) presence in the Chairman's office would mean.

At that point we had asked - what's with the Rs 1 salary?! Why, take anything?

Now it appears as if Rohan Murthy might be re-designated Vice President after approval from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. According to the Economic Times, a source has reveled that 'His designation will be confirmed once the approval process is completed.' The Business Standard however adds that there might be legal reasons for this change -- a relative's appointment needs approval from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

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At the time of the NRN announcement the press release had said - "In order to function more effectively, Narayana Murthy intends to create the Chairman's office to assist him during his tenure and has requested the board to permit him to put together a team for this function. The team will include his son, Dr Rohan Murty, as Mr Narayana Murthy's executive assistant."

"Rohan Murty is a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. He has a PhD in Computer Science from Harvard University and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Cornell University and has held fellowships at MIT, Caltech, and Microsoft Research. He has authored several papers and patents as part of his research on wireless and mobile computing. If appointed, Rohan Murty's term as Executive Assistant to the Chairman would be co-terminus with that of Narayana Murthy. Rohan Murty has requested that he should also be paid only a token compensation of Re 1 per year."