Finance & Market

Millions of shareholders would be hurt by the developments as the Satyam management was not fair to them, said the official, who did not want to be named. The SFIO investigation would form part of the coordinated action by all the regulatory and enforcement agencies, the official said.

Reacting strongly to the Satyam fiasco, IT major Infosys has said the fraud is a deliberate act and should be treated under criminal provisions.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy said on Wednesday he was not aware of the details of the Satyam Computer financial fraud, and would take appropriate action after studying the case. Reddy was in New Delhi for a meeting with Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

The National Association of Software and Services Companies, the apex body of the IT-BPO industry in India, on Wednesday expressed shock at the disclosures made by Satyam Computer Services chairman B Ramalinga Raju.

Satyam Computer Services Ltd has appointed Ram Mynampati as the interim CEO.

Years after the foreign media wondered if Americans should be afraid of Ramalinga Raju more than Osama Bin Laden beacuse of jobs they lost to India, experts said on Wednesday the fear seems to have come true, although for a different reason. While the context has changed completely, the level of financial wrongdoing revealed today by Raju at Satyam makes him a feared man in the corporate world, another analyst said.

Satyam Computers founder and chairman Ramalinga Raju has resigned from the company.The company's managing director B Rama Raju has also resigned.

Rajiv Mehta, senior analyst with India Infoline, a large brokerage house said his firm has immediately stopped covering Satyam and many other brokerage houses are also expected to do the same.

Ashok Gupta, executive director, and D Sundaram, vice-chairman, will be directors at Lakme Lever along with Anil Chopra, who returns to the newly formed subsidiary.

Reacting strongly to the Satyam fiasco, IT major Infosys has said the fraud is a deliberate act and should be treated under criminal provisions.

The managing director of a US-based pension fund blamed the fall on the carnage in stock markets globally and the heavy pullout by investors. "Last year saw unprecedented pullouts by hedge funds as they faced huge redemption pressure. Lots of investors believed they had paid too much and sold off. Most of the funds were listed in 2006 when realty prices were high. But now, prices have come down in most parts of the world."

Entrusted with the responsibility of tightening regulation and supervision in global banks that suffered huge losses - now estimated at over $1 trillion -- during the last one year, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has embarked on a series of measures to ensure proper regulation within banks. It has suggested forward-looking risk assessment by banks to avoid financial crises in future.