Need to incorporate better data analytics to avoid crisis like Satyam- Gurnani

Even after nearly a decade of the infamous Satyam Computer scam, our systems still take a long time to detect discrepancies at corporates and better data analytics are needed to plug the loopholes, said Tech Mahindra chief C P Gurnani said on Monday.

The Satyam Computer Services scandal was a corporate scandal affecting India-based company Satyam Computer Services in 2009, in which its founder B Ramalinga Raju confessed that the company's accounts had been falsified. On 7 January 2009, the chairman of Satyam, Byrraju Ramalinga Raju, resigned, confessing that he had manipulated the accounts of Rs 14,162 crore in several forms.

"All stakeholders, including banks, lending agencies and companies, need to be more responsible. We need to incorporate better data analytics and dashboards to capture loopholes and avoid a crisis like Satyam or IL&FS. I think we all are wiser but we need to have better processes and systems in place," Gurnani said in an interview to PTI.

"For an initial investment of Rs 830.45 crore in April 2009, we have returned Rs 6,614.80 crore, including a dividend of Rs 332. This is nearly an eight-fold return for small investors," he claimed.

On 13 April 2009, via a formal public auction process, a 46 per cent stake in Satyam was purchased by Mahindra & Mahindra owned company Tech Mahindra, as part of its diversification strategy. Effective July 2009, Satyam rebranded its services under the new Mahindra management as "Mahindra Satyam". After a delay due to tax issues, Tech Mahindra announced its merger with Mahindra Satyam on 21 March 2012.

"A lot of work was done to bring back the business and to reassure the clients, Today, we are around 1,20,000 people, which is, almost three times the size since 2009. A lot of that growth has been in the BPO business in addition to our performance in the traditional IT business," Gurnani said.