It was sometime in the early nineties that one started hearing about this company. What was felt unique was the very name of the company. It was called Satyam. Satyam in any Indian language (including the original language Sanskrit) means Truth. What was surprising was that no one thought of a name like that before, to name a company, that too one in technology sector. Most of the names hitherto were jargon based. The motto of G o I is Satymeva Jayathe. The very statement is the ultimate truth. It says Truth alone prevails. One has always felt that it is simply not possible to do business always in hundred percent truthful ways. Thus I was really enamored in someone naming the company as Satyam.
Soon thereafter, Satyam came into prominence of having bought a dotcom company (Indiaworld) at a value that is 500 times higher than the company’s turnover. This happened during the dotcom boom and at the century changeover. Dotcom companies were evaluated on crazy parameters such as eyeball counts etc. This news really created a feeling of ‘awe’ in everyone. Somehow, it did not jell for me and I suspected some hanky panky in the transactions. My thoughts were getting clearer. Satyam is not that Satyam, I thought.
Time flew. The company came to the fore as one of the topmost technology companies of the country. With global footprint and fortune 500 clients, Satyam grew very well. The company crossed USD 2 billion turnover in the course of time. Its chairman was very highly rated. He became the E&Y global entrepreneur award winner. The company received Golden Peacock award for excellence in corporate governance. Five of its independent directors were the who’s who in academic circles. It was sort of, Satyam had arrived. Like everyone, I too was watching it.
Then came the news. That of Satyam’s board deciding to buy the controlling stakes 2 infrastructure companies headed by the sons of the Chairman of Satyam. The evaluation of the stock of companies was done at the highest level. And Satyam was going to spend a fortune buying them over.
It is very strange to hear the name of the two companies. They began with the name Maytas. Maytas is the word Satyam reversed. From the beginning, it looked as bad omen. By the way, what happens when you reverse satyam? The truth will become lies. And here too, it was the same. The investing public, the stock market, the regulators and the opinion makers were in unison in denouncing the deal as a shady one. The stock of Satyam tumbled, globally. (Mind you, Satyam is traded in NASDAQ & NYSE!). Within no time, the company reversed its decision but not before the well-known independent Directors of Satyam Board coming under the questioning glare and the ire of the public. The winner of Golden peacock in corporate governance taking an agenda centric decision like this was unthinkable to many. That too when the chairman and his ilk’s were owning only 6% of stakes of the company!
Two weeks passed. Then comes another hit and this one came from the World Bank. One of senior executives of World Bank dropped the bombshell to the media that some months back, Satyam was blacklisted for the next 8 years by the Bank for data theft. Lo and behold! There lies Satyam, brutally wounded, shattered, and in total negative publicity. At the time of making this post, one reads about Satyam trying to take the Bank to the court for making inappropriate statements. Now what is that?!
You must remember that all these are happening when the company is not doing well and the market conditions are bad. Satyam has been doling out pink slips to many of its employees. The company had started down sizing the employee numbers back in September 2008 itself.
One does not know what the provocation was. Some business dailies had been writing about Satyam moving out of IT to Realty. Whatever that be, the company is in some bit of trouble. Is nemesis catching up with Satyam? Or is it getting caught for its misdemeanors? Looks like within 2 decades of its birth, life is coming to full circle for Satyam. One thing is clear, after all, everything that happened inside Satyam was not truly satyam.
We are living in the days of perception being considered as ultimate reality. With PR positioning, advertisement and continuous corporate communication, today it is possible to create whatever perception that you want in the minds of stakeholders and the public. The name Satyam itself looks as the ultimate idea of a corporate blitzkrieg. But somewhere on the way, the stripes went away and the original colors got exposed.
Friends, what is truth? Is truth a created one or is it something that lies deep inside the object, original to itself, as very much part of it, like, say, the DNA.
For the time being, let us all pray; Satyameva Jayathe!
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
THE END OF THE RAT YEAR
It is almost the last days of year 2008.
It really does not require higher intelligence to state that the Year 2008 was indeed a bad one, globally. The year reeled miserably under the impact of the Great Depression 2.0, terrorist attacks, assassinations and global warming (North America never had experienced this cold a winter for a long time). Well before the year began, the Chinese predicted that the year 2008, being a RAT year, would be one of the worse years and true to the predictions, the year behaved.
With this year, many things considered as bad or good-for-nothing is coming to an end. The first is the Bush presidency. For eight years he straddled the Americans with the fear psychosis, went into war with Iraq and Afghanistan, almost began the third one with Iran, messed up the nation with financial and governance incompetence and sent USA into the an economic recession presumably far greater than the great depression of the last century. Thank God he is going! The world and of course US is waiting for good tiding to begin with Obama taking up the reigns of the country. Let us hope for the best.
How good was year 2008 for the India? Not all that great, I can tell. For one thing terrorism had come to stay in India. The Central Government had proved its incompetence in proactively handling the terrorist affairs. The whole country lives with the fear of a terrorist attack that can happen anytime, any where. Also, the terrorism is spreading into hitherto unknown areas that were once touted to be best example of communal harmony. Several arrests of suspected terrorists from many parts of Kerala prove the point. Now there is the emergence of Hindu terror groups in the country (e.g. Malegaon). This year thanks to global meltdown, the country’s growth had taken a beating. Industries such as IT, Tourism, Automobile and the stock market were affected very badly. The year turned out to be good for Indian cricket and Congress Party (it gained more states to rule) though.
What about Kerala and the year 2008? There is absolutely nothing to write home about. It continued to be bad time for the state. No economic progress. No industrialization and no nothing. It is as is where is. Of course we had the usual quotas of the financial frauds, the ‘sthree peedanams’ (woman harassments), the continuation of washing of the dirty linen in public between the stalwarts of the CPM party, and the poor standards in education & health. (the comrades will not like it a wee bit, particularly when they ensured a near cent percent pass in SSLC exam!). Towards the end of the year, the Chief Minister put the whole state to shame with his unintelligent, untimely and unwanted comments of the martyr NSG hero Sandeep Unnikrishnan. The less written about the present Kerala, the better it is.
Personally too, this was not a great year. There have been business slumps, cash flow issues and people problems at professional front. When some thing is settled some other thing will crop up from unexpected quarters. The year was tumultuous, to say the least.
What is eternal is HOPE. The hopes never die. In fact it soars. Even without a back up. It is on the hope that I rest, for a glorious year to come by!
Here is best wishes to everyone for a productive, joyful and fantastic Year 2009.
It really does not require higher intelligence to state that the Year 2008 was indeed a bad one, globally. The year reeled miserably under the impact of the Great Depression 2.0, terrorist attacks, assassinations and global warming (North America never had experienced this cold a winter for a long time). Well before the year began, the Chinese predicted that the year 2008, being a RAT year, would be one of the worse years and true to the predictions, the year behaved.
With this year, many things considered as bad or good-for-nothing is coming to an end. The first is the Bush presidency. For eight years he straddled the Americans with the fear psychosis, went into war with Iraq and Afghanistan, almost began the third one with Iran, messed up the nation with financial and governance incompetence and sent USA into the an economic recession presumably far greater than the great depression of the last century. Thank God he is going! The world and of course US is waiting for good tiding to begin with Obama taking up the reigns of the country. Let us hope for the best.
How good was year 2008 for the India? Not all that great, I can tell. For one thing terrorism had come to stay in India. The Central Government had proved its incompetence in proactively handling the terrorist affairs. The whole country lives with the fear of a terrorist attack that can happen anytime, any where. Also, the terrorism is spreading into hitherto unknown areas that were once touted to be best example of communal harmony. Several arrests of suspected terrorists from many parts of Kerala prove the point. Now there is the emergence of Hindu terror groups in the country (e.g. Malegaon). This year thanks to global meltdown, the country’s growth had taken a beating. Industries such as IT, Tourism, Automobile and the stock market were affected very badly. The year turned out to be good for Indian cricket and Congress Party (it gained more states to rule) though.
What about Kerala and the year 2008? There is absolutely nothing to write home about. It continued to be bad time for the state. No economic progress. No industrialization and no nothing. It is as is where is. Of course we had the usual quotas of the financial frauds, the ‘sthree peedanams’ (woman harassments), the continuation of washing of the dirty linen in public between the stalwarts of the CPM party, and the poor standards in education & health. (the comrades will not like it a wee bit, particularly when they ensured a near cent percent pass in SSLC exam!). Towards the end of the year, the Chief Minister put the whole state to shame with his unintelligent, untimely and unwanted comments of the martyr NSG hero Sandeep Unnikrishnan. The less written about the present Kerala, the better it is.
Personally too, this was not a great year. There have been business slumps, cash flow issues and people problems at professional front. When some thing is settled some other thing will crop up from unexpected quarters. The year was tumultuous, to say the least.
What is eternal is HOPE. The hopes never die. In fact it soars. Even without a back up. It is on the hope that I rest, for a glorious year to come by!
Here is best wishes to everyone for a productive, joyful and fantastic Year 2009.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
THE CARNAGE IN MUMBAI
The Indians finally had it now, in abundance. Earlier, every time a terror incidence happened in the past, the country took it in stride and went on with its life. Nobody really bothered about the size and substance of the terrorist strikes that happened. It is only after 10 seaborne terrorist belonging to the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (L-e-T) outfit easily invaded South Mumbai and did blood bath in the Taj Heritage Hotel, the Oberoi Trident, the Nariman House, the Chatrapati Shivaji Railway Terminus, the Cama Hospital and other places; that the Mumbaikars, the Maharashtrians and the Indians fully realized that in our country anything like this is possible anytime, anywhere. Our surveillance systems, warning systems and the security systems are so lax that even an untrained terror outfit can create havoc in the country.
I heard Shekhar Gupta, the high profile Editor of Indian Express commenting in a TV show that among the last 4/5 governments that had ruled India, this one belonging to Manmohan Singh was the most ineffective in handling country’s security. Every time an incident happens, the PM would condemn it and get on with it. There was no proper action taken (neither reactive nor proactive). Look at what had happened at Mumbai. The Indian police force with antique model bullet proof vests and archaic protective measures is fighting fully armored terrorists. Their AK 47 is replied with 303 rifles! I just saw footage of what happened in CST where the two terrorist were indiscriminatingly and continuously firing with their AK 47 and a police constable desperately trying to load his 303 rifle up to shoot them. I do not know if that cop is alive and I wouldn’t be surprised if he had been martyrered.
The Intelligence agencies had already started their blame game. The RAW & IB had stressed that they had passed on information to the security forces about the impeding seaborne terrorist attack at Mumbai. The Indian Navy, the Coast Guard and the Mumbai Police have been replying that the intelligence input was of generic nature that nothing actionable could be done on that. Every agency is trying to cover up, what else? Once the attack began, one must admit that Mumbai police fought valiantly. High profile officers like Karkare and Kamte led the retaliation and perished in the process. The country owes to them immensely. Though under resourced with antique equipments, the Mumbai Fire force did a splendid job, that too in front the spraying bullets. And that was indeed a higher call! The NSG commandos came in (thought late) to complete the annihilation of the terrorists and get Mumbai out of the siege that it was for close to 72 hours. They too had lost men in the process and that includes Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan. NSG did what is required of them and turned out to become the heroes, getting the gratitude of every Mumbaikar.
Every one - the people, the press and the experts were unanimous in their expressions of utter contempt of Indian Political leadership. Throughout the siege, on every channel, the scared and anguished citizen of Mumbai were asking what had the Government and the politicians done for such incidents not to happen, in spite of the fact that it had been happening at regular intervals in Mumbai. Looks like the Government and the leaders haven’t thought of the safety of the hapless citizen and took the intelligence warning very casually. India is full of these self centered, illiterate, corrupt and inefficient politicians. It is high time these good-for-nothing guys are thrown out. Hearing the comments of RR Patil, the Dy Chief Minister who was also the Home minister of Maharashtra, one feels ashamed of having such people ruling us. No wonder, so many high profile heads rolled after the carnage.
What is the role of Pakistan in all these? Well, its political leadership could not have done anything but the role of other powerful elements such as Army and ISI in this event cannot be ruled out. How true is former American Secretary of State Madeline Albright, when she said that Pakistan is an international migraine. Its leadership is helpless and clueless and its control on the state affairs is very minimal. The Jihadi groups are completely free and is continuing with their act of training militants, killing hapless citizens & foreigners and sabotaging democratic processes & institutions. The country is bankrupt with high levels of unemployment. The education is still through madrasas where the radical clergy is injecting every student with feeling of hatred for anything un-Islamic. The lone terrorist who was captured at Mumbai seemingly had confirmed the direct role of Hafiz Saeed, the founder chief of L-e-T and the former ISI chief in training them and indoctrinating the group. People such as Hafiz Saeed, Moulana Masood Azhar (founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed), Dawood Ibrahim (D company!) etc.,who are listed in the international list of banned terrorists live and move around freely and easily in that country. It is time some semblance of discipline and order is brought about in Pakistan. Will it ever happen?
As for India and its citizen, we continue to live with the anguish of the carnages, the sadness on the loss of our dear kith and kin to terrorism and with the eternal fear on what will happen next, where. This is a terrible feeling. It is time our leadership rose to the occasion, kept rhetoric aside to get into proactive actions of preparing the Nation, its administrative and security machinery to prevent such mayhem from happening. The people are waiting for such confidence building measures to happen.
I think it is time.
I heard Shekhar Gupta, the high profile Editor of Indian Express commenting in a TV show that among the last 4/5 governments that had ruled India, this one belonging to Manmohan Singh was the most ineffective in handling country’s security. Every time an incident happens, the PM would condemn it and get on with it. There was no proper action taken (neither reactive nor proactive). Look at what had happened at Mumbai. The Indian police force with antique model bullet proof vests and archaic protective measures is fighting fully armored terrorists. Their AK 47 is replied with 303 rifles! I just saw footage of what happened in CST where the two terrorist were indiscriminatingly and continuously firing with their AK 47 and a police constable desperately trying to load his 303 rifle up to shoot them. I do not know if that cop is alive and I wouldn’t be surprised if he had been martyrered.
The Intelligence agencies had already started their blame game. The RAW & IB had stressed that they had passed on information to the security forces about the impeding seaborne terrorist attack at Mumbai. The Indian Navy, the Coast Guard and the Mumbai Police have been replying that the intelligence input was of generic nature that nothing actionable could be done on that. Every agency is trying to cover up, what else? Once the attack began, one must admit that Mumbai police fought valiantly. High profile officers like Karkare and Kamte led the retaliation and perished in the process. The country owes to them immensely. Though under resourced with antique equipments, the Mumbai Fire force did a splendid job, that too in front the spraying bullets. And that was indeed a higher call! The NSG commandos came in (thought late) to complete the annihilation of the terrorists and get Mumbai out of the siege that it was for close to 72 hours. They too had lost men in the process and that includes Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan. NSG did what is required of them and turned out to become the heroes, getting the gratitude of every Mumbaikar.
Every one - the people, the press and the experts were unanimous in their expressions of utter contempt of Indian Political leadership. Throughout the siege, on every channel, the scared and anguished citizen of Mumbai were asking what had the Government and the politicians done for such incidents not to happen, in spite of the fact that it had been happening at regular intervals in Mumbai. Looks like the Government and the leaders haven’t thought of the safety of the hapless citizen and took the intelligence warning very casually. India is full of these self centered, illiterate, corrupt and inefficient politicians. It is high time these good-for-nothing guys are thrown out. Hearing the comments of RR Patil, the Dy Chief Minister who was also the Home minister of Maharashtra, one feels ashamed of having such people ruling us. No wonder, so many high profile heads rolled after the carnage.
What is the role of Pakistan in all these? Well, its political leadership could not have done anything but the role of other powerful elements such as Army and ISI in this event cannot be ruled out. How true is former American Secretary of State Madeline Albright, when she said that Pakistan is an international migraine. Its leadership is helpless and clueless and its control on the state affairs is very minimal. The Jihadi groups are completely free and is continuing with their act of training militants, killing hapless citizens & foreigners and sabotaging democratic processes & institutions. The country is bankrupt with high levels of unemployment. The education is still through madrasas where the radical clergy is injecting every student with feeling of hatred for anything un-Islamic. The lone terrorist who was captured at Mumbai seemingly had confirmed the direct role of Hafiz Saeed, the founder chief of L-e-T and the former ISI chief in training them and indoctrinating the group. People such as Hafiz Saeed, Moulana Masood Azhar (founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed), Dawood Ibrahim (D company!) etc.,who are listed in the international list of banned terrorists live and move around freely and easily in that country. It is time some semblance of discipline and order is brought about in Pakistan. Will it ever happen?
As for India and its citizen, we continue to live with the anguish of the carnages, the sadness on the loss of our dear kith and kin to terrorism and with the eternal fear on what will happen next, where. This is a terrible feeling. It is time our leadership rose to the occasion, kept rhetoric aside to get into proactive actions of preparing the Nation, its administrative and security machinery to prevent such mayhem from happening. The people are waiting for such confidence building measures to happen.
I think it is time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
