11 Jan :The government on Sunday constituted a three-member board comprising noted banker Deepak Parekh, IT expert Kiran Karnik and ex-SEBI member C Achutan and it (the board) will meet within 24 hours for salvaging the battered Satyam Computer.
"The board is expected to meet within 24 hours and decide (the) further course of action," Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta said reporters on Sunday at a hurriedly convened press conference and added more members would be appointed to the Satyam board.
According to the order of the Company Law Board, the reconstituted board of the IT major can have a maximum of 10 members.
The government on Friday sacked the board of Satyam days after its founder-chairman B Ramalinga Raju admitted to a Rs 7,800-crore fraud in the books of accounts of the IT company.While welcoming the decision of the government to re-constitute the Satyam board, IT industry body Nasscom Chairman Ganesh Natrajan said, "We welcome this move. Karnik is still an active member of Nasscom; being an IT industry insider, his experience would come in handy."
Meanwhile, Satyam Computer Services on Sunday welcomed the reconstitution of the board, with the spokesperson saying "this is a vital stabilising development for Satyam".
On demand from institutional investors like LIC and Lazard for representation on the Board, Gupta said, "All options are open in the interest of the company."
The board, he added, would have eminent personalities from finance, law, IT and administration, Gupta said."Further appointments to the board may be made subsequently as required," he added.
The three-member board of Satyam, Corporate Affairs Minister Gupta said, "would be an independent board with full authority to act in the interest of the company … it will make its own assessment and take appropriate decisions."
The priority of the board, he said, "would clearly be to restore the company’s credibility, customer confidence and employee morale, as also to safeguard the interest of investors and other stakeholders."
Pointing out that all the three would act as independent directors, Gupta hoped the new board would provide the necessary "vision, along with responsible and accountable leadership, to the company in this hour of crisis."
The three directors include Parekh, an eminent banker and currently chairman of HDFC, and Karnik, past president of Nasscom with a long experience in information technology. The third member C Achuthan is a legal expert.
He is a former member of the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and has also worked as presiding officer of the Securities and Appellate Tribunal (SAT).
When contacted Parekh said on the telephone, "The first priority would be to meet as soon as possible… we will have to clear the mess." "I’m yet to talk to the other members," he added.
Karnik said the three-member board would meet as soon as possible and put in a place an operational management to deal with the present problems.
"We are trying to ensure that India continues to be a safe, secure and reliable destination for IT services," he added.