N Murthy to head ethics council

Taking a cue from the recent Satyam Computer Services fraud case that has hit the corporate image of India, software body Nasscom announced the formation of a Corporate Governance and Ethics Council today.

The council will be headed by Narayana Murthy of Infosys and will have other industry leaders on the board, according to Som Mittal, President, Nasscom who was speaking at the 17th edition of its three-day Leadership Summit which began here today.

The committee will function as a permanent sub-committee of the Nasscom executive council and is one of the initiatives being taken by the trade body to strengthen corporate governance practices in the Indian IT-BPO (business process outsourcing) industry, an official statement said. The eight-member committee will include industry experts, independent directors and academicians as its members, and will meet at least thrice a year to formulate strategies and measure implementation schedule.

The objectives of this committee will include sharpening the existing appropriate code of ethics, values and corporate code of conduct for industry; emphasising existing regulations and practices on corporate governance and re-drafting and re-affirming appropriate code of ethics, values and corporate code of conduct for industry

While the mood at the annual event was overshadowed by the global economic slowdown and corporate fraud of Satyam, around 1,200 paid delegates from IT firms and 20 foreign delegates took part in the event.

Speaking at the inaugural session, Kamal Nath, Minster of Commerce and Industry asked the IT industry to look inwards in this time of economic slowdown. “The Indian IT industry is the pride of India. But with the current global recession perhaps it is time for introspection within the IT industry. India is a huge reservoir right here to be tapped,” he added.

He went on to say: “At Davos while I saw gloom among the western economies. I also saw that these economists were looking at other economies, especially in the emerging markets like China and South East Asia for next phase of growth.”

Speaking on the protectionist stance that some of the countries have taken, Kamal Nath said: “Protectionist is not a one-way street, especially where the government and the private sector work together.”

The inaugural session also saw leader like John Chambers, chairman of Cisco address the summit. “Most business leaders look at this time as one of the most challenging time. But I will not be surprised if India turns out to be one which has the fastest GDP growth rate,” said Chambers.

Citing Cisco’s instance, Chambers said that the company has used every slowdown as an opportunity to innovate and grow and that is one of the reason for the company to move from a revenue of $10 billion in 1995 to $100 billion in 2009, while its competitors moved from a size of $71 billion to $14 billion at present.