Book on post-scam revival of Satyam Computers in the offing

Our Bureau Updated - November 23, 2017 at 12:36 PM.

T.N. Manoharan

On January 7, 2009, there was turbulence in corporate sector. That day, B. Ramalinga Raju, the then Chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd, made a confession on fudging of company accounts in a letter to the board of directors.

When corporate India feared the revival of a company when Raju said, “It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten”, the Government nominated experts from various sectors to tackle the issue and to revive the company.

The former president of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, T.N. Manoharan, who was one of the government-appointed directors during the post-Raju period, is now writing various aspects of revival process from the day Raju made confession till the company’s takeover by Mahindras in the form of a book.

In an informal chat with

Business Line on the sidelines of a state-level conference of CA students in Mangalore on Thursday, he said that nearly 75 per cent of the work on the book has been completed.

He plans to complete the research work on this book by the end of this financial year, and plans to launch it by June. “I have realised that I cannot do that work (research) on a day-to-day basis. I have to take a break of 15 days exclusively for that so that I can complete it. Hopefully, by the end of this financial year, I should be through.

“I have dictated the contents. Now I have to skeleton it in the form of different chapters and make them self sufficient in all the factual data,” he said.

To a query on the contents of the book, he said it will be purely a revival story.

It deals with the happenings from the day Raju made confession about the scam till the company was taken over by Mahindra group.

The part-1 of the book will be about the revival aspect. In the part-2, there will be lessons for the readers to pick up. “There will be two components in part-2. One component will be what the corporates can pick up, and another will be what human beings can pick up.”

Asked about the publisher of the book, he said he has not yet finalised it. However, he is trying for a global publisher for this.

He is also planning to launch it in the form of an e-book.

On a question on the title, he said: “One interesting thought that has come to me is ‘Experiments with Satyam’. It is only a thought.”

Manoharan, whose term as government nominated director on the board of Mahindra Satyam came to an end on July 15, 2012, has been appointed as an independent director on the board from July 18.

> vinayak.aj@thehindu.co.in

Published on December 13, 2012 16:29