Sending waves of surprise across the Industry, Infosys announced that Mohandas Pai has resigned

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as a member of board of directors and director-in-charge of human resources, effective June 11, 2011. CEO Kris Goplakrishan said his decision is personal and there is no connection between his resignation and recent Pai’s comment on corruption in Karnataka and said we all are committed for a corrupt-free society.

Pai joined Infosys in 1994 and was on the board since May 2000. After 17 years of his association with Infosys, his resignation was unexpected when the company reported lower-than-expected fourth quarter net profit and revenue and when there was a wide speculation that Pai would become the COO. Pai’s resignation is the biggest one in the company’s history since Nandan Nilekani quit.

Infosys revenue for the quarter was Rs 7,250 crore, up 22 per cent from Rs 5,944 crore during the same period last year. Net profit was at Rs 1,818 crore versus Rs 1,600 crore last year.

Referring to his resignation, Pai said, “I am feeling devasted. But, I think I have to step down to allow new generation of leaders to take charge. Infosys 3.0 requires new set of leaders. I am sure Infosys will be one of the Top 3 companies in the next 5 years. IT industry has brought a respect for Indian passports across the world, and I happy that I was a part of this happening.”

He said for the past 9 months he has been discussing about this with Narayana Murthy, Chairman and Chief Mentor of Infosys, who persuaded him very hard to stay on.

“In fact, Murthy asked me whether I aspire to become CEO, I said No,” Pai said.

In his message, Murthy said, “Mohan has been an early adopter and a keen anchor builder of Infosys. It is difficult to imagine Infosys without Mohan’s passion, commitment, joie-de-vivre and intellect.”

Pai said he would neither join politics nor UID project, and will spend substantial part of time in the public service, working with government on educational policy and helping in setting up universities.

“I will retain links with corporate world and will join the board of couple of companies, which would have systemic influence on India,” he said.

Infosys Board will meet on April 30, 2011 to finalize plans for the company’s leadership succession, post Murthy’s retirement as chairman of board in August 2011.

The company will also bring in some change to its business models and will focus mainly on verticals, such as BFSI, Manufacturing, Retail Logistics, Life Sciences, Public Services and Healthcare.