Deepak Parekh - Kiran Karnik - C Achuthan – First Three Board Members of Satyam Computers

Indian authorities have installed three prominent business leaders to run scandal-hit software giant Satyam Computers.

The government appointees replaced the company's own interim board of directors who took charge after Satyam founder and chairman B. Ramalinga Raju admitted that his company's accounts and assets had been falsified.

According to company affairs minister P.C. Gupta, “the new board would provide necessary vision and accountable leadership in this hour of crisis to restore credibility, customer confidence and employee morale”.

Gupta described Satyam as "a company of national and international fame" as he announced the first three new board members.

"It has many professionals on its roll who are amongst the best and the brightest in the world. It is therefore important to ensure continuity of the company”, he said.

Satyam, which has clients in 65 countries and 53,000 staff, has been on the investment list for several top Indian and global mutual funds but its future existence now looks bleak.

The Indian government has said the financial mismanagement at Satyam had "resulted in serious damage to the reputation of Indian corporate sector and the regulatory mechanism in the eyes of the world."

The new board members include Deepak Parekh, head of one of India's largest private banks, and Kiran Karnik, former chief of the National Association of Software and Service Companies. The third member of the new board is C. Achuthan, eminent lawyer and former boss of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, India's market regulator that is probing the billion-dollar scandal.

In his resignation letter Raju had written that heading the company as the deception grew was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten.

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