REDUX AT INFOSYS

THE INVESTOR page of Infosys’ website welcomes you with a quote from its legendary founder, N.R. Narayana Murthy. “Good corporate governance is about maximising shareholder value on a sustainable basis while ensuring fairness to all stakeholders: customers, vendor partners, investors, employees, government and society.” The company is committed to defining, following and practising the highest level of corporate governance across all its business functions. “Integrity and transparency are key to our corporate governance practices and performance…,” Infosys says.

But recent turn of events cast a shadow on the company’s corporate governance practices. Murthy’s “fairness to all stakeholders” statement is under question. The company’s lilywhite image appears tinged, and not for the first time.

The latest, first. A group of employees, likely from the company’s finance team, wrote to the Infosys Board of Directors and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleging unethical practices by the company’s Chief Executive Officer Salil Parekh. “In the last quarter, we were asked not to fully recognise costs like visa costs to improve profits,” the mail, from the group identifying itself as ‘Ethical Employees’ and dated September 20, 2019, stated. “This quarter, there is a lot of pressure to