Corporate Governance

Well, I am no authority in this subject but surely there must a law enacted to prevent financial fraud. I am talking about the aborted attempt by Ramalinga Raju of Satyam Computers to exit from Satyam and clean out the cash. He thought he was very smart and the world all so dumb, around him. Actually, he may have been able to do it ~15/20 years ago without anybody noticing but not anymore. Fortunately, we have a more active media and financial watchdogs to alert the who's who and scuttle his plans.. I watched him on TV yesterday and he put on such an act.. such innocence.. who does he think we are - brainless? Even for a lay person like me it was clear he was siphoning away money and didn't care two hoots what happened to the shareholders nor the employees of Satyam. A pointed question on who owned Maytas was asked and he said he didn't have all the details and was not privy to information that even a News reporter had!! Without such information, he planned to invest 1.6 billion US$.... who does he think he is talking to, school kids??

Not to mention the beating India Inc has taken in the eyes of the World, thanks to this misadventure. I believe most family owned businesses are now being viewed with suspicion, naturally. This has blotted India Inc image and will take a lot of efforts to re build confidence in Indian Cos.

Just as we woke up to the lacuna in our system to combat terror, this is a wake up call to have stricter laws to book such fraudsters under IPC.

Well, I have been critical of the media in my earlier posts, they deserve praise here, and I think they had a role in scuttling the whole deal. I particularly liked the way the presenters asked pointed, no-holds barred questions at Mr. Ramalinga Raju. There was no implied meanings or oblique references made, they were straight and boldly thrown at him. Kudos to the CNBC team!! (that was the only channel I watched on this issue).