The Satyam Fallout – Is The India Inc’s Image At Stake?

While the Satyam incident is certainly an extremely unfortunate and disgraceful event for the India Inc in general (and the Indian IT industry in particular), is it really an image tarnisher for the former?

This question struck into my mind after coming across the plethora of reports/views/comments, etc that the Satyam incident will rob the India Inc as a whole (and not precisely the Indian IT industry) of the faith and confidence of the foreign investors.

First, I fail to understand why the India Inc as a whole should be judged in the light of the financial irregularities practiced by a single IT company.

Secondly, I also fail to understand that why even precisely the Indian IT industry is likely to suffer an overall image backlash for this Satyam fiasco. The Indian IT industry has been holding a prestigious position in the global business scenario for quite some time now, with a host of Indian IT companies like Infosys and Wipro having successfully curved a niche for themselves across the world. A number of global players across business domains and industries are well familiar with not only the quality of service provided by the Indian IT players, but also with the high level of corporate ethics practiced by them. How can these existing and prospective stakebearers lose all their confidence and faith overnight for what has been done by one Satyam, no matter how much shocking the Satyam incident may have been?

In case the Indian Inc’s international credibility at all has suffered any setback, then I feel all the concerned parties and other influencers (the top Indian companies, government, the media, etc.) should launch a well crafted Public Relations campaign, aimed at ensuring it that the world does not get a wrong message about the India Inc as a whole for what they have seen in Satyam’s case. Did the world lose confidence on the US Inc as a whole when Enron happened? No. Then why should the world misunderstand the entire India Inc because of one Satyam?