Govt ready to deal with Satyam-like frauds: Khurshid

The government today said India is more prepared to deal with a Satyam-like fraud that hit the corporate world with the disclosure of about Rs 10,000 crore fudging of accounts by the founder of the IT firm B Ramalinga Raju a year ago.

"We have learnt a lot. Not just about the wrong that we do, but we also learnt about our inherent strengths. We have developed administration skills to steer through crisis," Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told PTI.

The government could not have handled the corporate fraud, which had international ramifications, in a better way, he said, adding "now we can see the silver lining...The company (Satyam which is now Mahindra Satyam) is out of dark clouds".

The Ministry, Khurshid said, has already put in place an early warning system to detect corporate misdoings and would be fine-tuning the new Companies Bill, which is pending in Parliament, to firmly deal with financial frauds.

One of the leading IT companies, Satyam Computer Services went through hard time after its founder in a letter to market regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on January 7, 2009 admitted to fudging of accounts.

Following the disclosure, the government superseded the board of Satyam and asked its nominees to look for a new promoter. After completion of the bidding process, Tech Mahindra acquired the company and renamed it Mahindra Satyam.