The Class of 2009

Kiran Karnik

"He proved to be a Messiah for Indian IT"

"It was a Sunday (January 11, 2009) when I got a call from the government
(Department of Corporate Affairs), and by afternoon we had got together, and on
January 12, 2009 itself we had started working," remembers Kiran Karnik, talking
about the government appointed board that steered Satyam out of troubled waters,
following Rajus confessions earlier on January 7, 2009. The Satyam fiasco not
only shocked corporate India, but had threatened to permanently tarnish the
image of the Indian software exports sector. While there were six members on the
government appointed board, Karnik was the only one with an IT industry
background and, more importantly, as chairman of the board, he was the captain
to guide the sinking ship out of the turbulent waters.

While the stellar efforts of the board has been vividly documented elsewhere,
it would suffice to say that Karnik and the other members motivated and managed
to retain most of the Satyam workforce during troubled times; ensured that most
customers stayed back; abided with all regulatory and investigative bodies and
mechanisms in India and the US; successfully found a new respectable owner, Tech
Mahindra, through a fair and transparent bidding process; and created a new
model for corporate governance in India. Karnik had an illustrious tenure as
Nasscom president; with his role in bailing Satyam out, he has found immortality
in the pantheons of Indian ITs history.

Ramalinga Raju

"He threatened to write the epitaph of Indian IT"

In that now infamous letter addressed to Satyam employees on January 7, 2009,
Byrraju Ramalinga Raju confessed to "getting on to a tiger and not knowing how
to get off"; while the frank (many still feel not so frank) admission
reflected upon the moral (or the lack of it) turpitude of Raju and his cohorts
(in senior management positions in Satyam), the likely demise of Satyam had a
debilitating impact on the future of the Indian software exports sector and
threatened to derail the efforts of numerous foot-soldiers built strenuously
over two decades. The ominous signs were there from December 2008, as following
the Maytas fracas, skeletons came tumbling out of Rajus cupboard.

While the stellar work done by the government nominated board and the new
owner, Tech Mahindra has somehow cleaned up much of the muck in the Satyam
Augean stable, there is a growing apprehension that the full magnitude of the
fraud will never become public. As the Indian courts take their own sweet time
over the prosecution (things have not moved much with Raju yo-yoing between jail
and hospital) and more and more evidences of misappropriation and misdemeanor
come out, the full effect of the Satyam saga will probably take years to get
fully settled. Raju, meanwhile has been the complete antitheses of Karnikhe
would forever be remembered as the one who nearly pushed a thriving industry,
overnight, over the precipice into an abyss of despair and destruction.

Nandan Nilekani

"He has traversed from Infosys to Unique ID, from industry bellwether to e-gov
pinnacle"

Not too many people quit their plum professional positions in the private
sector to take up a government posting; especially if he is one of the poster
boys of the glamorous IT industry.The government challenge he is accepting also
makes him susceptible to enormous amount of public flak even for a minor hiccup.
But then Nandan Nilekani is not exactly your common specimenone of the
co-founders of Infosys, he has co-scripted admittedly the corporate success
story of the century, and inspired the business book of the decade about the
increasingly flattening world. He abdicated all that to take charge of the
Unique Identification Number projectat nearly Rs 20,000 crore, its not just
the biggest e-gov project in India, but in terms of sheer scale and magnitude
(and the population it plans to cover) its the biggest ever project envisioned
anywhere in the world. At Manmohan Singhs invitation, Nilekani agreed to become
the chairperson of the unique ID authority whereby he enjoys the rank of a
Cabinet Minister.

The move to set up the UID Authority of India (UIDAI), under the aegis of the
Planning Commission, is aimed at providing a unique identity to the targeted
population of the flagship schemes to ensure that the benefits reach them. Also,
the UID program will provide an identity card to every citizen to establish
citizenship and address security concerns. The identity cards proposed will be
smart cards which will carry information of each and every individual, his/her
finger biometrics as well as a photograph. A unique National Identity Number
will be assigned to each individual including those below eighteen years of age.
Incidentally, Karnataka (where Infosys has its HO) has been identified for the
first pilot where it will come up in 2010; if all goes well the state that
proved to be a happy hunting ground till now could turn out to be Nilekanis
ultimate Mecca (or Waterloo, as some detractors feel).

Vineet Nayar

"In the top league now"

Though HCL Technologies has been historically considered part of the SWITCH
sextet or WITCH now (with Satyam becoming Mahindra Satyam and falling out of the
club), its CEO Vineet Nayar has never been the darling of the Fifth Estate like
a Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji or a Nandan Nilekani. And he has not even got
half the press received by a Ramadorai or Lakshmi Narayan who have not been that
media savvy. Forget others, he has not even received the same adulation as a
Shiv Nadar or an Ajai Chowdhry from his own group. 2009 however seemed to be
Nayars year in the sun. On the back of a strong showing as his company emerged
as the Indian software services provider who signed the maximum number of
infrastructure management related deals with enterprises across the world. After
joining HCL in 1985 Nayar worked his way through the ranks, holding senior
positions in sales and strategic marketing, and has been CEO of HCLT since
October 2007.

While the acquisition of Axon last year (the largest acquisition in the
Indian IT sector) catapulted HCLT to the top league, under the able stewardship
of Nayar, HCL went ahead with a host of multi-million marquee deals this year.
Starting from Readers Digest, Nokia, Xerox, UTi Worldwide, MJ Logistic, MTV
Networks, Jet Aviation, Oncor, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Energy Future Holdings,
Avaya to Equitable LifeHCLT outshone even more well known names from India on
the global services radar. Looks like HCLT is now threatening to steal away a
portion of the high value SAP installation market from western outsourcers. The
industry worldwide too seemed to be noticing Nayars contribution behind the
HCLT resurgence as accolades and awards were bestowed generously; he got the
2009 Beacon of Hope award at the Evening of Hope benefit dinner in New York,
even as the company received several others.

N Chandrasekaran

"The prince who celebrated his coronation"

He was anointed to be the TCS CEO way back in 2005, when it was decided that
Ramadorai would be hanging up his shoes. That way, Chandra has been the Yuvraj
Singh of Indian IT industrythe prince, forever waiting in the wings to take
over the reins one day. But while Yuvraj is still the bridesmaid of Indian
cricket, 2009 turned out to be Chandras year as he finally assumed the top spot
at Indias #1 IT services company. Many industry veterans credit Chandra for
transforming the very DNA of TCS in the last few years. TCS was like a massive
ship that used to grow by its sheer momentum. The problem was it was not nimble
and aggressive like an Infosys. And many say that one person who changed the
organizations culture was Chandra. He created accountability, aggressiveness,
and a can do attitude at a time when there was no one willing to challenge the
status quo. The need of the hour was to have some one take charge and Chandra
did it especially during his term as executive assistant to Ramadorai.

At just forty-five years of age, Chandra is one of the Indian IT industrys
youngest CEOs, alongside thirty-nine year old Francisco DSouza of Cognizant. As
COO, Chandra was responsible for formulating and executing TCSs global
strategy. He was the architect of the new organization structure unveiled in
2008 which created multiple agile business units focused on domains and markets;
again it was Chandra who pioneered the creation of the Global Network Delivery
Model. Like Ramadorai, Chandra too started his career at TCS in 1987. He quickly
climbed the hierarchal ladder to become general manager, SEEPZ, in the 1990s. In
that capacity, he handled the GE account initially. Its likely that the
parallels will end hereconsidering the difference in nature between Ram and
Chandra thats more likely to happen. Tatas either have had flamboyant, in the
news CEOs like Rusi Mody or Darbari Seths or the back room boys like Ram. Going
by his, past track record, Chandra is likely to emulate the former category.

Shashi Tharoor

"The man who tweeted too much"

The jury is still out on whether our dapper Minister of State for External
Affairs, Shashi Tharoor, has been a diplomatic success or not. But one thing is
for certain, no one has contributed more than Tharoor in popularizing Twitter in
India during the year. By now his classic tweets on cattle class and holy
cows and other non-cattlic matters, has not just created a vertical schism
across the middle of the Congress party, his cabinet colleagues or the Indian
polity, it has given the micro-blogging site in India more than its fifteen
minutes of fame, and brought it to the mainstream of Indian consciousness. What
took Facebook years to achieve in India, what Orkut gained and subsequently
lost, Twitter gained in a matter of few weeks, thanks in no small measures to
Tharoors ample online sartorial skillsthe Indian mindshare. The UN
diplomat-turned-politician, has been tweeting since March 17, 2009, and used it
as a communication tool during the Lok Sabha poll campaign. His first tentative
tweet was during his campaigning from Thiruvananthapuram, which has now
graduated to more expansive posts, recounting his tryst from becoming a MP to
being a minister.

Interestingly, social networking sites are blocked from the ministrys
computer networka result of a cautious policy to prevent foreign intrusions.
Not surprisingly, the majority of Tharoor posts, after taking over as the
minister, have been sent from his BlackBerry, using a mobile client for Twitter.
Though there had been some tweets directly sent from Twitters web interface,
most of them were sent late at night, usually after midnight. While the initial
tweets were humorous but irreverent (first dinner by EAM for diplomatic corps...
back on a beat I thought Id left when I quit the UN... But better food here!
spoke French after years, he tweeted at 12.29 am on June 2, 2009). But it was
his cattle class comment during the post-austerity drive that made Tharoor
tweets a national news item on front pages and prime times. And also brought
admonitions from his own party. And now from his boss SM Krishna too for airing
his views publicly on Twitter.

After all, he was asking for it. Back to India after decades in the US, he
forgot that he was not President Obama, India was not the US and the Congress
party was not the Democratic party. So, when he got onto Twitter and started
tweeting regularly to an ever increasing number of followers, the Congress High
Command would not have been amused. And when the number of his followers crossed
1 lakh, alarm bells would have started ringing. Outside the Nehru-Gandhi family
and unlike other young politicians, Tharoor, a political novice, has become the
first leader to connect directly to so many Indians, and that too interactively
on a daily basis. Nevertheless both Tharoor and Twitter are going strong: on
December 12, 2009, his followers crossed the 500,000 mark; congratulatory
messages led to a Thank You reply. Result: as of last day of the year Tharoor
has 550,996 followers....and counting.

Anand Mahindra

"He might become Vishnus eleventh avatarthe IT Messiah"

Creation is only the first phase. You then have to move on to the next phase
of sustaining that creation to the realm of Vishnu the preserver. Perhaps that
is why Vishnu comes not in one, but in ten incarnations. Thus spoke Anand
Mahindra, the scion of the Mahindra Group, during the annual Nasscom conference
in Mumbai in February, 2009. Within two months he has got his first Vishnu
moment when braving skepticism about the future of a company stripped down by
its own founder, Mahindra entered the takeover battle and emerged victorious,
thereby creating Mahindra Satyam from the wreckage of Satyam Computer Services.
With this one action, Anand Mahindra dared to tread into territories where even
established IT czars (read the Murthys, Premjis or for that matter the Tatas)
feared to step in. Notwithstanding well-meaning solicitations, none of the IT
biggies were willing to even carry a barge pole anywhere near the beleaguered
Satyam, post Raju confessions. Till Mahindra decided to take the riskas a means
of joining the WITCH leaguecombined Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam revenues
zoom the groups IT topline into the top five.

The road doesnt end for Anand Mahindra just by creating the new entity. He
has already set the goalpost and raised the crossbar much beyond the regulation
eight feet. At the Satyam Leadership Council meet in May, 2009, he told the top
sixty managers of Mahindra Satyam: "Mahindra group companies are usually
expected to be #1 or #2 in their line of business. Mahindra Satyam should not
lose sight of this goal." If this single minded persuasion succeeds, it will be
a reincarnation for Satyam in all sensesforget its renaissance post-scam, even
without Rajus financial peccadilloes the conservative South Indian company
could never have dreamed of reaching these heights on its own steam. Anand
Mahindra is now foraying into making planes; but he has already soared off with
his groups IT dreams. Touch mouse, if theres no crashlanding the Indian IT
industry might have got its future navigator.

A Raja

"In the name of God, go!"

Though a recently created ministry (a decade old only, and even less if you
include the IT part) the Communications & IT have been on the forefront in
courting controversies; during its short life, most of the ministers starting
from Ram Vilas Paswan, Pramod Mahajan, Arun Shourie to Dayanidhi Maran have been
in the limelight being mired in one or the other controversy. However, their
performance report cards have always ranged from Outstanding to at least Very
Goodeven Paswan was responsible for starting Wi-Fi in India. However,
Andimuthu Raja takes the cake in the controversial bandwagonfrom an alleged
Rs 60,000 crore scam over 2G spectrum allocation to his wranglings with Trai;
while that had ensured Raja remaining in the news, on the performance monitor,
its hard to give him anything other than a resounding Not OK.

CBI alleges (that too in an FIR), as per CVC recommendations, serious
irregularities in the award of the spectrum licenses and a criminal conspiracy
woven between DoT officials and certain private companies. Licenses were awarded
to two private companiesSwan Telecom and Unitech, allegedly under CBI
investigationson a first-come-first-serve basis at the rates of 2001, which
were very low without any competitive bidding. Swan Telecom got the license for
a mere Rs 1,537 crore. It then sold its stake to a foreign operator at nearly
three times the amount within a few months. Unitech got the spectrum licence for
Rs 1,650 crore from the DoT, which too, sold its stake to a Norwegian company
for over four times this amount. While Raja ruled out his resignation owning any
responsibility, he in fact justified that all decisions on spectrum licensing
have been taken in accordance with procedures laid down by Trai and in
consultations with the PM.

While the scam taint has been Rajas biggest bugbear, another justifiable
complaint has been that he should hardly be called a Minister of IT. There has
been no discernible actions on the part of Raja, either towards attracting IT
investments or on completing large e-gov projects like CSC or SWAN which are
consistently missing their deadlines. Even the creation of the IT Task Force
(that has now come out with its recommendations) has been more because of the
efforts of Sachin Pilot, the Minister of State for IT; e-gov has chugged along
more due to the efforts of individual champion bureaucrats, while the unique ID
project has been initiated under the Planning Commission. Mr Raja, you have
hogged maximum limelight; in everyones interest, the citizens of India should
now proclaim, paraphrasing Oliver Cromwell in Britains Rump Parliament, In the
name of God, go!

Patni Brothers

"They were up in arms to commit corporate incest"

Dont wash your dirty linen in public and dont let the family skeletons
tumble out of the cupboard are maxims your grandmother would have taught you.
But Indian business families do not seem to have imbibed the lessonsbe it the
much publicized Ambanis or the simmering fights among the Bajaj brothersfracas
between Indian siblings are usually long drawn and fought in public and under
media glare. The IT industry too was having its own drama these last two
yearsthe Patni brothers have been at loggerheads, the feud brewed and things
culminated (or came to its logical conclusion) in 2009, with two of the brothers
selling off their stakes in one of Indias oldest software firms. Cracks have
developed between the three Patni brothers in 2007 only, the founder promoters
who together owned 48.3% in the firm thats more famous for being the launchpad
of Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani than for being Indias sixth largest
software exporter.

Gajendra Patni and Ashok Patni decided to sell a substantial part of their
stakes along with PE firm General Atlantic who held 18% stake. This was against
the wish of the other brother, Patni chairman and CEO Narendra Patni, who wanted
to hold onto the company. Their bids failed then because Narendra Patni, who was
the executive chairman, was not ready to give up operational control. Thwarted
in their attempts, the feud simmered on these two years and the stake sale talks
were revived only this September, 2009, since Narendra Patni has now become
non-executive chairman after appointing Jeya Kumar as the CEO in February, 2009.
Meanwhile, after a sort of revival in fiscal fortunes in FY 09 (ironically in a
downturn year), the companys valuation has again reached the level it was in
two years back.

In November, 2009 itself the two brothers, along with their sons and
grandchildren, started off divesting their stakes in the open market. With
alleged potential buyers like L&T Infotech and NTT negotiating lower than
current market prices, their hands were somehow forced, though the Rs 72 crore
they have mopped up from selling 1.12% of their stake is minimal compared to the
66% stake held by the combine of the three brothers and General Atlantic
together. Narendra Patni is not budging thoughrumors are rife that he is
interested in increasing his stake because his thirty-two year old son Anirudh
Patni is a senior vice president in the company and a larger stake could help
his son succeed him.

Rajneesh De

rajneeshd@cybermedia.co.in