Tuesday, January 13, 2009

And now Satyam's EMRI service

Troubles come in battalions. Perhaps because the company's chips are down, its vaunted emergency services are coming under fire. (Kiran Karnik, recently appointed director of Satyam, was on the board of this organisation along with Krishna Palepu, K V Kamath and other distinguished personalities).

ET reports that the NGO is being sued along with 11 state governments for anti-competitive practices.The charge is that it grabbed Rs 3800 crore of contracts without proper tendering being done:

The PIL in the SC, however, has been filed against EMRI, its ex-Chairman Ramalinga Raju and 11 state governments. The petition alleges that: “The process of award of contracts (for running ambulances) is being effected without following the due fair process. The respondent states have either already entered into or is considering awarding the contracts or have tailor-made the EoI to suit EMRI in the name of saving lives using funds under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).”

On a different note, FT's Lex column makes the point that the impact of Satyam is not confined to the IT sector (where Infosys has gained in value and Wipro has lost). Family-owned businesses are also feeling the impact:

It is telling that neither Ambani brother has emerged with the market’s vote of confidence. Shares in Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries are down 21 per cent since last Tuesday; those in Reliance Communications, the telecoms group controlled by his younger brother, Anil, have fared even worse, slumping 29 per cent.
It is worth mentioning that SEBI has ordered an independent review of the financials of the Sensex and Nifty firms. Investors should keep their fingers crossed.

2 comments:

Mitesh said...

Existing board is making public the financial statements..

The Traveling Quad said...

I had actually attended a talk by Shaffi Mather during the International Conf on Social Entrepreneurship in Chennai in Dec. He is the co-founder of 1298 ambulance service and during his talk he had clearly mentioned what was wrong with the EMRI way of things. He had also mentioned about SC's notice to the states and EMRI with regard to the way the contract was awarded.

So point is, this thing already existed. Just that we are seeing it now because Satyam is in spotlight.