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It has been two years since Ramalinga Raju came out with his confession that took the Indian IT industry by storm. Not only were we faced with an enormous credibility crisis but also the challenge of somehow keeping the IT giant on its feet for preserving jobs and customers.
Two years down the lane from the Satyam Saga, are things any different for us? Has the Indian IT industry changed? These are the questions that everyone is asking.
Satyam was undoubtedly the biggest scam that Indian IT came across in its glory years. Post the outsourcing boom and the volley of customers that kept coming our way, no one expected that fraud was required or that it would surface this shockingly. Then, Satyam happened, and it exposed glaring gaps in the way that corporate governance and internal transparency was being dealt with in the industry.
In that way, Satyam acted as a wake up call not only for the industry but also for the government and the stakeholders. Legislation that always seemed to be hovering behind the horizon finally arrived and companies' began to take the role of auditors and independent directors seriously.
Ganesh Ramamurthy, Director, GRC Services, KPMG, agreed that much had changed after Raju's revelations. "One thing that has been positive in this whole episode is that we hear more people talking about corporate governance. It has taken a front seat and been much more in the spotlight since Satyam happened," he said.
The fact that corporate governance is getting noticed more than ever is helpful in more ways than one. As businesses go global, the layers of complexity increase and so does the need for monitoring possible misappropriations. Also, investors are looking at a company's compliance methods and tools before putting in their funds.
On the hot seat
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