TNN

Bangalore, Apr 14: If you go to the website enron.com, all that it will tell you is about the efforts of the Enron Creditors Recovery Corp's efforts ‘‘to  reorganise and liquidate the remaining operations and assets of Enron''. Ditto with lehman.com or lehmanbrothers.com. It just tells you that the company has filed for bankruptcy protection, and then there are links to other sites that help you understand the state of ‘‘disposition of businesses and subsidiaries'' of the company.

Satyam's website — satyam.com — in contrast, is refreshing. Despite having been hit by India's biggest corporate scam over three months ago, it still presents a business-as-usual look. The home page has the latest announcement of Tech Mahindra emerging the highest bidder for the company. There's a congratulatory message from Kiran Karnik, the chairman of the board. There's a comment from Justice S P Bharucha, certifying that the bid process was fair, transparent and open. And beyond that, it's all the things you would expect to find in any IT company's website.

In other words, the Indian government and industry have reason to pat themselves on the back for pulling Satyam out of what once looked like certain disaster — for ensuring Satyam didn't go the Enron or Lehman way. And that indeed is what many of them are now doing.

‘‘In less than 100 days, we found a home for Satyam,'' says Som Mittal, president of IT industry body Nasscom. ‘‘Normally, in such situations, the company implodes. But during the past three months, the government, industry and industry associations worked together to ensure Satyam's business continued and that most of it remained intact.''

The government's decision to quickly appoint a high-profile board to oversee Satyam is widely seen as one of the best things it did.

The industry helped by not wilfully poaching Satyam's clients and employees. ‘‘We wrote to all our members not to do this. And they respected the appeal. We also had regular talks with Satyam's clients and analysts to reassure them. That ensured there weren't significant client desertions,'' says Mittal.