Indian IT stars in Davos look to cast off shadow of Satyam

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Updated: 29/01/2009 | 03:20 PM IST

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Press Trust of India

Thursday, January 29, 2009 (Davos)

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India's burgeoning IT sector has granted its businessmen glamourous places among the world's elite in Davos, but this year they are on the defensive, looking to rebuild trust after the Satyam scandal.

The last 12 months have been brutal for the reputations of many former high-flying businessmen, none more so than the boss of Satyam, B Ramalinga Raju, who is currently in jail.

The founder of India's fourth-largest software services company was on the initial guestlist for Davos this year, but is in custody facing charges of cheating and forgery after owning up to multi-million-dollar fraud.

The rest of the Indian IT sector, which has enjoyed years of rapid growth due to outsourcing by multinationals, now faces a crisis of confidence at a time of falling demand due to the global economic crisis.

"It was a 'caught in the headlights' feeling," reflects Vineet Nayer, chief executive of HCL Technologies, India's fifth-largest outsourcing provider by sales, when recalling the day he learned of the Satyam fraud.

"One day you open the newspaper. It was an unbelievable morning. It seemed impossible that something like this could have happened in India," he told AFP on the sidelines of this year's Davos forum.

The incident, he said, had required Indian IT companies to reassure customers and investors about their businesses and is driving a broader trend towards greater transparency.

"One bad apple does not make the whole orchard bad," he stressed, adding that HCL did double auditing -- a second auditor checks the work of the first -- and has six independent directors.

"Satyam is a bad incident but I think we are converting that into an opportunity to have an open conversation with customers."