Mr Murthy and his protégé Nandan Nilekani have always been clever about managing their image. Consider this anecdote of 2005, just two years after the Narayana Murthy Committee had submitted its report to the Securities & Exchange Board of India
NR Narayana Murthy’s return as executive chairman is seen as so positive for Infosys that any talk about the serious breach of good governance norms in the manner of his return, or the appointment of his son, is seen as needless criticism. Well, Mr Murthy and 
his protégé Nandan Nilekani have always been clever about managing their image. Consider this anecdote of 2005, just two years after the Narayana Murthy committee had submitted its report to the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Janardhan Kothari of Kolkata, wrote to me expressing his ‘shock’ and ‘surprise’ that NRN Murthy, as an independent director of NDTV Limited had not attended a single board meeting in his first year. I forwarded the email to Mr Murthy asking if it were true. His response: “That is right. I am guilty. I had told them that my diary gets full a year in advance. I do not cancel appointments once made. That is why I could not attend the meetings. This year, I have attended all the meetings.”
This candour hides the fact that this is a complete violation of the corporate governance code, which places enormous responsibility on independent directors. Couldn’t Mr Murthy have joined the NDTV board a year later? Well, because NDTV was going public and having Mr Murthy on the board before its initial public offering (IPO) would help it extract a good premium from investors. NDTV repaid this debt in full when Mr Murthy was under serious attack from a vengeful HD Deve Gowda (during his son HD Kumarswamy's regime in Karnataka).
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You got to understand one thing very clearly. Whenever one tries to split on Moon, it comes back on his/her face only.
I have been receiving emails almost every day and there no single day wherein you have not omitted venom against a person who is like SUN. (not moon!)
It seems that the purpose of your existence is to demonstrate that you are only the honest genius person on this planet! Or trying to project yourself a superhuman born to enlighten the society.
But you forget one important thing that is real honest & genuinely genius personalities thinks hundred times before raising fingers towards others. It is because they know when they raise one finger towards others three fingers are towards them.
When it comes to today's email story, you are barking nonsense about NRM using HDD & NDTV! Both these personalities are very well known to the world.
NRM has shown what is honesty, simplicity and novel way of life. Whereas HDD has show what is betrayal, dishonesty and crooked way of life.
Conclusion is you are doing all this nonsense for certain vested interests. After all it is "jamana of PAID MEDIA!"
I know you have set-up this Moneylife as an NGO! AND NGO means a license to loot legally by one or the other ideas. It was a novel activity before but nowadays it has reduced to this level and you are no exception. I am openly saying this on this forum so that let everyone knows.
I know you will now threaten me with legal actions saying you have my IP address etc. You may succeed in doing so even using few corrupt police team, but one you got to understand & remember for ever is SUN always remain SUN.
I know you will never understand this.
Regarding selective reading / arrival, I will comment only on topics which I find I should comment. It is unreasonable to expect comments on all articles.
Having said that, you should not take my criticism negatively. Yes it does not discredit you from your best intentions to create awareness.
Though NRN's appointment of his son is not really ideal, how bad is it really? How bad is it in the context of general practices in the Indian industry?
Among the founders of large companies, who are the people still at the top in terms of corporate governance? You might say that NRN especially deserves flak because he forcefully upheld the principles of governance in the past. So, are you now punishing him because he was nice? The message is, don't be nice because you get panned the moment you go a little out of line. It is better to keep things convenient right from the beginning.
I had a friend who shaved only on alternate days. I asked him why and he said because people in his office should not get used to of his tidy appearance. It seems that people who shave daily are the ones who get the flak...
In my above comment, I am genuinely requesting for an article giving us non-experts an overview of status of corporate governance (who are the good guys, who are the bad examples, how bad is the situation, etc. -- these are not rhetorical or cynical questions :-)
I agree that this is a blemish on NRN's record. But since I don't remember so many journalists writing against someone appointing their child for a position, I was wondering if the expressed protests are higher than usual this time.
And if they are, is it more because NRN's blemish on his otherwise spotless white image makes for a stark contrast or is it because the blemish itself is too big and dark?
And look at the flip side -- had they not made these claims and walked the talk at one time ( you seem to have missed my other piece about how Murthy actually walked the talk in 2003) - the same media would not have put them on such a high pedestal and praised them to the sky for being the torchbearers. We would have treated them like any other company. For instance, we have never considered even the Tata group as much of an epitome of good governance as Infosys. So WONT their about turn merit discussion? Please tell me what are you expecting... ?
Best regards and bye.
The issue is that the there are already so many articles out there on internet/newspapers who are saying almost exactly the same things. There is nearly nothing new in this article what some 100 others haven't covered.
What I am expecting is an article/journalist who thinks a little differently and takes this opportunity to give the laymen readers an overall context of status of corporate governance in India -- how bad is it, who are the worst guys, who are the good guys, what has been government's attempts in the past, who are the shareholders who are most vociferous in demanding governance, etc. I read your other article too. It gave me a rare insight how these committees work, the pressures they are subjected to and how they deal with that pressure. That made me feel good and more informed.
Thanks for your comments.
We wish you could have read other articles on Moneylife about corporate governance, instead of selective reading, especially on NRN. Here are some articles that explains CG in India...
1. http://www.moneylife.in/article/corporat...
2. http://www.moneylife.in/article/corporat...
3. http://www.moneylife.in/article/corporat...
4. http://www.moneylife.in/article/corporat...
Kindly remember, these are just few of the articles appeared on first page on Moneylife after searching for Corporate governance. You can see more on this subject after search.
Thanks again,
MDT
How did NDTV repay the debt?
Spend more time on Moneylife... the answers are all there.
SKS I think was a novel concept by Vikram Akula where he spent 50% of the portfolio value in creating a system to administer the rest of the 50% of the capital! Unfortunately the good idea is dead and microfinance is now dead.
The death of microfinance will put additional pressure on the RBI to stretch its failed inclusive banking initiative where non commercial considerations are used to strain profitability of banks by banking in places which frankly are not generating any wealth due to the absence of an entrepreneurial culture. Microfinance would have been the cure to all these ills unfortunately is now dead.
I think Rohan is better off without joining Infosys and should manage the family's massive hedge fund but if the Infosys experience and his one on one training with his Dad works for him and Infosys then why not? I think Infosys is still doing much better in terms of how much pain the management is taking to revive it that I could still bet on their future prospects. In any case as a capitalist you vote with your cash and the induction of NRN into an executive role and his son playing a minor side role has only bolstered capitalist sentiment on the share price. I only pray that Rohan does not use the insider information to do market trades on his Catamaran Investment fund.
Nothing is sacred, everything is for sale to the highest bidder, and there is a powerful code of "Omerta" - mutual silence and covering each other's backs.
Scandals only come to light due to some vengeful whistle-blowers who have not got their slice of the pie!
Now when opportunity has come he is pushing his son in Infy and every one is agreeing.
What i want to know is the role played by Rohan Murty in this investment. After all, the main stream media claims that his role in family firm Catamaran qualifies him - experience wise to be NRN's Exec Assistant!! But nobody says what he does. Even the CEO of Catamaran -- apparently a buddy of Rohan wont specify to the press.
Meanwhile, I think Mohandas Pai, who has been vocal in every newspaper that called him is not qualified to speak either. He is saying many contradictory things. Maybe I will put it on moneylife blog... gimme some time!
The next quarter shareholding pattern had Nilekani's name missing without a whisper
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes...