MUMBAI, India  One of India’s most successful technology entrepreneurs was tapped by the government on Thursday to lead an ambitious project to give every citizen an identification card within three years.

The entrepreneur, Nandan M. Nilekani, a founder and former chief executive of Infosys Technologies, will leave his post as a co-chairman of the board to take on the ID card project. In his new job, he will have the rank of a cabinet minister, giving him significant autonomy within the government. Mr. Nilekani’s appointment is a coup for the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which has made a series of big promises about economic development and reform since it was re-elected in May to a second five-year term. While many Indian executives serve on public advisory boards and committees, few have joined the government and headed such big public projects.

The appointment of someone with no political or a civil service background suggests that the government may be more willing and able than it has been in the past to tap the expertise of the country’s successful business sector in executing difficult endeavors, many of which have languished under career politicians and bureaucrats.

Image Nandan M. Nilekani, a founder of Infosys Technologies, will lead the ID project. Credit... Namas Bhojani for The New York Times, 2008

Policy makers see a national ID card as critical to improving the delivery of social services, subsidies and other government programs while also strengthening national security. The Indian government and outside observers have shown that the majority of aid earmarked for the poor does not reach them, and it is hard for the government to detect embezzlement and misuse of funds.