Three musketeers to command Satyam board

Deepak Parekh, Kiran Karnik and C Achuthan aren't exactly the three musketeers, but the government's new board for Satyam is made up of a man for all seasons, a brand equity builder and a stickler for rules. Their task - restore trust in the company after the ultimate act of betrayal by its founder Ramalinga Raju, an iconic Indian industry leader until he disclosed that he had been fudging the company's accounts for years.

Parekh, 65, is the chairman of HDFC, India's premier housing finance institution and more than that the government's adviser at large, while Karnik is credited with propping up the Indian IT industry and Achuthan with handling the Ketan Parekh securities scam case.

Parekh is widely consulted by the government on a wide range of issues of national importance and has been a member of various government appointed committees and advisory panels, which includes financial services, capital markets and infrastructure sector reforms.

He is also member of the Investment Commission that advises the government on ways to attract greater FDI inflows into India and would be amply complemented by Karnik - a revered brand equity builder.

One of Karnik's successes has been to build global brand equity for the Indian software and service industry. But there is more to Karnik than what meets the eye. He launched the Discovery Channel in South Asia in August 1995 and Animal Planet in 1999 and could well be counted on to re-launch Satyam.