Mutants Latest Updates Blog

Putting to rest all the speculations surrounding the appointment of Satyam’s new chief executive officer (CEO), the six-member government-installed board today inducted A S Murty — a Satyam veteran — for the top job at the company with immediate effect.The board also announced the appointment of Homi Khusrokhan, former managing director of Tata Chemicals, and Partho Datta, Murugappa Group’s former director (finance) as special advisors to the board to assist in management and finance areas, respectively.

The special advisors, along with Boston Consulting Group, will work pro bono and will assist the newly-named CEO and the board, in defining priorities and executing them effectively.

The board also confirmed receiving bank sanctions to the tune of Rs 600 crore as a planned fund infusion towards working capital requirements. This funding, along with healthy collections, is expected to help the company tide over its financial challenges.

Satyam also reaffirmed that January 2009 salaries globally and the fortnightly salary in February 2009 for its US-based associates have been met from its internal accruals.

“Murty (fondly called ASM) is a Satyam veteran of 15 years, and has been in its forefront since January 1994. He brings to play a deep understanding of the organisation, proven expertise in leading a business unit, overseeing global delivery, nurturing costumer relationships and spearheading the entire gamut of the human resource functions. He is well respected for his ability to effectively integrate the team and enable a collective decision making, which will be critical as Satyam moves into its revival phase,” board member Deepak Parekh said in a statement.

“In our interactions over the past few weeks, we are convinced that Satyam needs an internal leader to steer it at this critical juncture and ASM has the required bandwidth and support,” he added.

These decisions are aimed at quickly stabilising Satyam. The organisation has visibly increased its focus on business continuity for its customers and confidence building amongst its associates (employees) and vendors, the board, which along with its advisors met over two days — the fifth meeting in less than a month — on Thursday.

“This is a unique opportunity to provide direction and guidance and I accept it with all humility. I have no misgivings about the enormity of the task in front of us, but together with my colleagues, I am confident we can accomplish the impossible. I look forward to working very closely with the board, our advisors and all Satyamites – to restore Satyam to its well-deserved glory. We will chart a precise and practical 30–60–90 day plan that will encompass and address the interests of all stakeholders,” Murty said.

“Having led large organisations before, I expect this opportunity to be a singularly enriching experience and I look forward to contributing my might to this noble task,” Khusrokhan said on his new role as the special advisor to Satyam.

“Completing the complex financial restatement exercise, including announcement of Q3 results and ensuring prudent financial operations will be the primary focus in the next few weeks,” said Datta, who will be overseeing the financial operations of the company.

The board reconfirmed that their key priorities and collective focus remain unchanged. These include reaching out to key customers and associates to reinforce their trust and confidence, asserting the financial position and restatement of Q3 results, evaluating long-term strategic options, in consultation with the advisors, assessing legal liabilities and dealing with them comprehensively, undertaking cost rationalisation measures and resuming investments in identified areas.

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz have been appointed as Satyam’s lawyers to address the Class Action suits in the US. Latham & Watkins have been lawyers to Satyam for over eight years and they will continue to support Satyam in its continuing dialogue with US Sec, the release said.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development unveiled here on Tuesday what has been tagged as an “ultra low-cost” computing-cum-access device that can “make wonders” in the dissemination of education to the remotest corners of India.

With talk of the “introduction” of a laptop costing Rs.500 making the rounds, the prototype of the device was introduced to the delegates as well as Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh, Minister of State D. Purandareshwari and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy during the formal launch of the National Mission on Education through Information and Computer Technology on the Sri Venkateswara University campus.

The 10” long and 5” wide hand-held device, resembling a palmtop or a modem, helps e-learners access the Web easily. Priced versions of e-content available on the Net can be accessed through this device.

The cost of the device shot up to between $20 and $30 against the initial plan to peg it at $10, forcing the department to resort to a cost-cutting exercise. R.P. Agarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Higher Education, who displayed the prototype to the delegates, expressed confidence that the cost would be brought down further.

In an elaborate presentation, N.K. Sinha, Joint Secretary, Ministry of HRD, explained that the prototype bore testimony to India’s technological capability, with some of the components developed by engineering students themselves.

He said the aim was to make the device cost something close to that a student would have to spend on textbooks for a year. “If bandwidth charges fall further, the device can work wonders,” he said.

NEW DELHI: Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj on Monday said she will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and exuded confidence that her party will come to power.

“Now the party wants us (party leaders) to contest the Lok Sabha polls and as per the directives of the party I will be contesting,” she said in a statement here.

Her statement came close on the heels of reports that she had been directed by the party leadership not to contest in the Lok Sabha elections and instead concentrate on poll management.

Describing elections as a “festival of democracy” and an occasion to garner the “trust of the people”, the BJP leader said she had never shyed away from contesting elections.

She exuded confidence that the saffron party will come to power and Advani will become the next Prime Minister.

The credit crunch computer is set to arrive tomorrow in India when officials unveil the 500 rupee (£7.25) laptop. In an attempt to bridge the “digital divide” in the country between rich and poor, the government will show off the prototype, low-cost laptop as the centrepiece of an ambitious e-learning programme to link 18,000 colleges and 400 universities across the country.

India has a reputation for creating ultra-cheap technologies, a trend sparked last year by the Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car at Rs100,000 (£1,450).

The computer, known as Sakshat, which translates as “before your eyes”, will be launched as part of a new Rs46bn “national mission for education”. This envisages a network of laptops from which students can access lectures, coursework and specialist help from anywhere in India, triggering a revolution in education. A number of publishers have reportedly agreed to upload portions of their textbooks on to the system.

Prabhakar Rao, vice-chancellor of the university in Andhra Pradesh from where the Sakshat will be launched, said that India was “looking to get the hardware and software cheaper. In a developing country, costs have to be kept low so that the maximum number of students will benefit. That means cheap computers and cheap broadband access, so that students get access to ebooks and ejournals.”

Although half of India’s 1 billion people are aged below 25, the country has fallen behind in terms of university places, with only 11% of students enrolled, compared with double that in China. India’s bigger northern neighbour already has 180 million internet users, five times India’s total.

Designed by scientists at the Vellore Institute of Technology, the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras and the state-controlled Semiconductor Complex, the laptop has 2Gb of Ram and wireless connectivity. In an attempt to keep costs low, experts say it is unlikely to use familiar Microsoft Windows software.

Officials are confident that the Rs500 price tag can be met. RP Agarwal, the top civil servant for Indian higher education, told newspapers last week that “at this stage, the price is working out to be $20 [Rs1,000] but with mass production it is bound to come down.”

The Indian machine would also be considerably cheaper than the “$100 laptop”, the lime-green computer known as the Children’s Machine or XO that was designed by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US.

Launched in 2005 in a flurry of praise by Nicholas Negroponte, the former director of MIT’s Media Lab, the XO has failed to take off, partly because it costs $200 (£141) to make. However it has given rise to low-cost computers that save money by getting rid of hard drives and using cheap screens. The Classmate PC made by Intel, the world’s biggest microchip manufacturer, can be bought for $400. Taiwan’s Eee PC costs as little as $200.

However, some experts doubt that a laptop at $20 or $10 is commercially sustainable. Rajesh Jain, managing director of Netcore Solutions and a pioneer of low-cost computing in India, said: “You cannot even [make] a computer screen for $20. And India does not build much computer hardware. So where will the savings come from?”

Some bloggers today saw the new laptop as nothing more than a “souped up calculator”. The sceptism was summed up by Atanu Dey, whose blog read: “If the government could pull-off a near-impossible technological miracle, does it not imply that the entire global computer industry is either totally incompetent or else it is a huge scam which produces stuff at very little cost and sells them at exorbitant prices.”

Officials have been reluctant to talk about the project ahead of the launch, however, one did say that costs have been kept low by using students and researchers to do much of the designing. He said that in 2007 the cost was $47, but further refinements meant it dropped dramatically.

Low-cost inventions

• India saw the launch of the $2,000 (£1,410) “people’s car” by the motor company Tata last year.

• Wind-up everything. Since Trevor Bayliss invented the wind-up radio in 1989 the technology has spread. Wind-up power is now common in camping equipment and is being installed in African villages to provide lighting.

• DIY-adjustable glasses. The brainchild of British inventor Josh Silver, whose aim is to offer the specs to a billion of the world’s poorest by 2020.

• In Kenya Equity Bank recently launched mobile banking, which allows customers to deposit, transfer and withdraw cash using a mobile phone.