DNA Money Edit | N R Narayana Murthy's message for India Inc: Be transparent and fair

Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy's recent assertion that companies must be transparent, fair and accountable is a fervent call to the India Inc that includes his own company currently mired in some controversies. His insistence comes close on the heels of his demand for improvement in what he termed "poor corporate governance standards" at India's second-largest software services firm. He avers that businesses may go up and down but what is important is that the values cannot go up and down. Murthy believes that the day you lose transparency, that's the day your business starts going down.

Of course, trust is an important attribute that you build over a period of time, and it takes no time to demolish it. The former head of Infosys, one of the most respected in the IT services sector, had raised concerns over governance issues in the company. Its $200-million acquisition of an Israeli software company Panaya in February 2015 under Vishal Sikka has been a sore issue between its founders and the management. Mumbai-based stock brokerage Ambit, in fact, downgraded the stock to 'under review' from 'buy,' citing the company's refusal to make the Panaya probe report public. The unusually high severance pay package given to former chief financial officer Rajiv Bansal also created a ruckus between the two parties.

Infy, along with its peers TCS and Wipro, which provide business consulting, technology, engineering, and outsourcing services, is competing with larger global rivals including IBM and Accenture for a bigger share of the outsourcing business. Protectionist measures and negative rhetoric on visa and jobs by the Trump regime has aggravated the challenge for them. These companies should remain transparent and accountable, and fight a fair war in the market. That's the least they can do.