Ramalinga Raju website sinks without trace. Almost. - Play Things

Ramalinga Raju website sinks without trace. Almost.

Sidin Vadukut - Thursday, January 08, 2009 5:47 PM

Very early after the Satyam imborglio broke out yesterday a mysterious website appeared within hours that proclaimed support for Ramalinga Raju. The site then, equally mysteriously, dissapeared by the end of the day.

www.ramalingaraju.com now no longer works and and points to an error page. But for a few hours this morning the file system of the site was left exposed and your truly was able to grab a few files before that too was shut down later in the day.

Now rumour was strife on the blogosphere and twitter circles that the site was being run by Satyam itself or someone in cahoots with the Raju family. It is currently too early to say if there is any substance in this. The site is registered to a Ramaraju Kanumuri in Hyderabad. Who, to be honest, may or may not be related to the Satyam family. But before the site went down several people posted messages of solidarity with the ousted Satyam honcho. Many of these supporters mentioned Satyam's philanthropic work especially the Emergency Management and Research Institute. From the EMRI site:

EMRI (Emergency Management and Research Institute)  is a pioneer in Emergency Management Services in India. It is a not - for - profit professional organization founded, funded and nurtured by Mr.B.Ramalinga Raju, founder and Chairman, Satyam Computers and his brothers. Operating in the Public Private Partnership  (PPP) mode, EMRI is the only professional Emergency Service Provider in India today.

EMRI handles medical, police and fire emergencies through the " 1-0-8 Emergency service". This is a free service delivered through state- of -art emergency call response centres and has over 1400 ambulances across Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Goa, Chennai, Rajasthan,Karnataka and Assam. With the expansion of fleet and services set to spread across more states, EMRI will have more than 10000 ambulances covering over a billion population by 2010.

Even Ramaraju Kanumuri branded himself on the site as a 108 user. While there is no reason to question Satyam's motives behind EMRI, the Satyam tide has dropped and all boats, charitable or otherwise, will go down with it.

It seems unlikely that the site may go live again. So here are two archived images from the site. Both look like homepage designs. The first seems like an initial iteration. The second is slightly more forceful. Check out the highlighted (in red) words:

Iteration No. 1:

Iteration No. 2:

Clearly there are many people who still harbour fond feelings for Mr. Raju. Employees, family members and beneficiaries of the Satyam's charities all seem to still believe that the "GOD FATHER" can still emerge from this crisis with old glory intact.

I hate to deflate their hopes, but in the light of the magnitude of his action it looks like the damage caused is irreversible.

How did Satyam touch your life? Did you ever work for or with Raju? Leave a comment on this blog which will always be live.

 p.s. In more bad news for Satyam it looks Satyam resumes are flooding the job market. I would take any statistics with a pinch of salt--a friend in Naukri.com says that they see no signs of unusual traffic--but SiliconIndia has reports of some 10,000 resumes floating on the market. That's almost one in five employees. Wow.

Share this post: email it! | del.icio.us! | digg it! | newsVine!
Tagged in: , , , , , , , ,
23 Comment

From Alakh N Singh

January 8, 2009 8:24 PM
I had worked for Satyam at their Checkfree Client's office, 10 Exchange Place, New Jersey, USA from March 12 2007 to May 25, 2007, i.e. only 2.5 months. Well I had been professor of Economics and Finance at University of Colorado for 15 months before that, so was used to efficiency, intellectual freedom and boldness. My project manager Mr. Ruchir Gupta and Asst project manager Mr. Sandeep did not like those qualities in me and they removed me fromt he project without giving me any work for 6 weeks. Of course they billed to Checkfree Corp for my presence in that building for 8 hours on a working day, but actually I had not done any work for Checkfree Corp. Whatever ideas I gave to Sandeep, he said those ideas were not relevant to the project. Both these persons told lies to the HR Manager mr. madhu Kappu that I was incompetent and removed me from the project. When I came to know about this lie after 6 weeks when HRD manager Mr. Madhu kappu told me the reason for my removal from the project, I was shocked and even told the truth to him. I don't know what he did after that i.e if they conducted any enquiry about Ruchir or Sandeep's behavior, but I was sure that Satyam was not the right place to work for upright and intelligent people like me as it was full of sycophants and people of dubious character who did nto have the courage to tell the truth to me. I did not mind firing by them nor did I care for their lies as I have to do a lot more important things and I am in a much better job now with salary 25% higher.

From rebel

January 8, 2009 8:43 PM
How many would loose jobs if Satyam goes down?53,000 employees and may be a few others. Whats the total cost of the FRAUD? Around a billion$$. Is this the first time this happned? No. Is this the first country this happned?No. Is it comparable to corporate greed in US in its size?Yes. But much smaller scle. Why is it a big news? He was the shining prince in Satyam armour from India. How many farmers DIE each year for lack of basic amenities? 2-300,000. What the total cost of the fraud by Indian politicians? more than 10 Billion$$ per year Is dieing farmer a new phenomenon? No. Do farmers suicide in the US? Not for hunger! Why is it not a sensation? Because no one cares about 800 Million farmers in India but they care about a billion $$ company and its few thosusand employees!!

From rafi khan

January 8, 2009 9:13 PM
How about calling Satyam as JHOOTAM. Ram linga Raju Garu can find solace when he thinks that his shoes is 1/50 the size of Bernard MADOFF. Down the road in next 2 to 3 years we will find many more surprises coming up.

From rafi khan

January 8, 2009 9:13 PM
How about calling Satyam as JHOOTAM. Ram linga Raju Garu can find solace when he thinks that his shoes is 1/50 the size of Bernard MADOFF. Down the road in next 2 to 3 years we will find many more surprises coming up.

From rakesh

January 8, 2009 10:43 PM
I visited that site. I posted a comment yesterday in that site asking them to remove the logo "Satyameva Jayathe". That is not applicable for Rama Linga Raju as proved in the last few days. I also mentioned legal action if that slogan is used again in association with Satyam MD, Chairman , CFO and Ram Mynampati. After that today the site is not there. it is Satyam handi-work only no doubt.

From rudra

January 9, 2009 11:03 AM
Hey Rebel, I totally agree with you. I dont support what Raju has done but I can pu my had on my heart and tell that this Fraud is very very tiny infront of the political Frauds in India. -Rudra

From Joe Desi

January 9, 2009 12:21 PM
The people who posted on this ramalingaraju.com site are confused about what's right and wrong. Their logic seems to be that, since he has done some good, we should forgive all the destruction in people's lives. I simply dont understand how you could condone someone. How do we even know if the charity done by Ramalinga Raju is not from investors money, that he got through fraud? It is easy for anyone to be charitable with other people's money. Also, doing something good does not give you a write to do a lot of bad things. If that is the case, each doctor who has saved many lives has the right to murder a few people. Let us always consider a criminal as a criminal and not introduce some level of confusion around it. If this country needs to move on, we need to first make it a REAL SHAME when somebody does something criminal or fraud and not try to reduce its impact. Everyone who loves him because of good things he has done should be thankful they were helped, but not necessarily support Raju as a good person. He is simply a fraud, who has done good things for some people. Dont forget, he has bought many houses, cars and other assets using the money he cheated from a few people who may have lost their retirement savings or worse in deep debt. Get your head out of the sand and recognize something wrong as something wrong.

From Joe Desi

January 9, 2009 12:27 PM
And to Rudra, who feels it is Tiny - a crime is a crime. Dont dilute it. The loss is not just the 7000 crores but also lost jobs, lost dreams, loss of confidence in the Indian market, cost of investigation, tax payers money used for bail out and a general lack of trust in businesses. I think what Raju has done is as huge as the Bofors scandal, or worse in its impact on the Indian industry.

From KP

January 9, 2009 4:03 PM
This interesting stuff about the particular website is something I did not see in any other media in this whole deluge of Raju-bashing. Thanks for the article, Sidin. On a personal front, I had a around 20k rupees worth of Satyam stock in my portfolio, which are today worth a measely 1000 rupees! Not to rule out my own investment mistakes, I am thinking about Fidelity and LIC which own huge percentages of the company and now their respective beneficiaries are just left with nothing. Working in a leading IT Services company myself, I have seen Satyam under-bidding at ridiculously low rates and taking away quite a few projects. At the same time, I have seen a few projects being transferred to my company due to under-performance by Satyam. I'm sure there are quite a few brilliant developers, consultants and Project Managers in Satyam who are now affected by this scam - I wish the best for them ahead, but I'm wondering how a 3-5% operating margins as claimed by Raju are possible with an Indian offshoring company. This statement cannot be true, unless Raju happily siphoned off some of the operating profits for his personal gains, and that needs to be probed out.

From Serene

January 9, 2009 8:41 PM
What Raju has done is undoubtedly wrong and is not corporate governance. However I have seen some disturbing rheoteric on the net in blog sphere with indians of different states indulging in bullying of telugus as Raju happend to be from Andhra, and labelling every telugu as fraudster. This is to remind all those bullying a particular state people, remember that india has producted fraudsters more than researchers or engineers. To think that rest of the corporate houses dont fudge their books at all and only Satyam has done it, is foolish. Also to say Satyam only has given benefits interms of land @ less price et... is also imprudent as we know very well how Wipro, Infosys is running against each other last year to lap up the free land everywhere including in hyderabad. There were allegations that Infy is building up huge land banks at throw away prices from various state governments. Similar is the case of SEZs of various companies. Lastly to think that Satyam has done something drastic as a sin in the world is equally shows your ignorance as in a recent survey 70% of US based CFOs admitted that they fudge their books on continuous basis. Overstating of books is always less harmful that understating and siphoning of funds is dangerously ill which our corporate houses do with diligence yoy

From Varun

January 9, 2009 10:56 PM
Why Raju has done all this things? Answer: Raju has explained that he has done all this things not for money.But reality is he has siphoned all the money from satyam all the profits and invest that money by buying lands all over the hyderabad. Government should start probing for the lands maytas raju and his family mmbers posses and sell them and recover the cost.That can teach the lesson to this kind of fraud people.

From P.S.HARIHARAN

January 10, 2009 4:19 PM
Dear Sir, It has happened again.This time it is the bigger software company after the infamous DSQ Software .The Andhra "Rajus' have proved to be frauds.The late KVK Raju who was with a multinational company floated several companies under Ngarjuna group and his 'illustrious ' son is now cooling his heels behind the bars for cheating depsitors of Nagarjuna Finance. Captain Rat Raju has left the sinking ship along with the so-called independent directors.The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India shouild immediately cancel the membership of the auditors of Satyam for the mega fraud. Satyam resorted to 'asatyam' (fraud and falsehood)) to become a corporate terrorist! Yours etc P.S.Hariharan

From Lifetime

January 11, 2009 7:08 AM
Without knowing the real facts and causes - no one has any right to decide on Raju. -So many people lived for 20 years due to them. -So many got married by telling I work for Satyam. -So many travelled around the globe telling I am from Satyam. -So many build their careers, knowledge and wealth being from Satyam or working for Satyam -So many bought homes by showing that they work for satyam and had been paying the money from Satyam. -Not so educated are employed by satyam for support purposes. -108, 104 and EMRI is the brain child of Satyam. -Satyam Public Schools is supported by Satyam. -So much of Money spent on providing education to many who work for satyam and by carity -Satyam gave to this world - many good, talented people who are even today doing great in their careers. -Satyam is the company that started building good tech oriented centers around the world and started in STC. -Sify is the biggest internet service provider in India that is being used by number of customers to connect around the globe. (salaried paid to full until Dec 2008). - To go on there are many more to list - But let me tell you with out access to credit it is very hard to keep the wheels running and just think that he was using that Rs 5040 crores as money to run all the good brain ideas the brothers had for the betterment of India. So, if the world market is going down like broken glass of water - how can the brothers pay back the credit(here the fake money). But in the other worlds here they used the money and are not able to pay and go for bailout. Keep the image of India Inc as is and just say it was just a accounting false and move on. We need people like that to educate the so called other world that we also can do it. In the other worlds, they ask people to invest for getting money after 30 years and when the time comes they go out for bailout and I think if you compare that to what Raju's have done is far better and a good lesson how to market ourself abroad and get money into our economy. WAKE UP INDIA! - Media don't even know how to protect the India Inc Image. Let the gov handle the case and media don't spend to much time showing this on the TV. That it self is getting the India Inc Image go down. Indian By Birth.

From reddy

January 11, 2009 11:32 AM
This guy is an international criminal now. there are lakshs of people who had lost there money due to this ideat Raju. crime doen by him is, he has just diverted thousands of crores to his family owned companies like maytas this is the universal truth.

From Satish

January 11, 2009 11:41 AM
Why is that some of the morons here dont understand the damage this Raju has done to Satyam, Indian Economy, investors and employees. Its shameful to even read their points in supporting this thug. Just because he is a telugu/Indian doesn't mean we should support him. He is corrupt to the core, castiest and a liar. Read his statements in the last few weeks and everything that he spewed from his stinking mouth is a lie. This guy has no basic values or ethics. Hope this guy will stay in infamy for ever and will be studied as a case study at every business school. I hope and pray that we go to the depth and unravel the whole story - capitalization of Maytas, their land holdings and the involvement of YSR / CBN is his corrupt schemes.

From Satish

January 11, 2009 11:50 AM
Investors worldwide will lose faith in India unless we go to the bottom of this case and punish all the culprits including the politicians who connived with this robber raju. Special emphasis should be on YS Rajshekar Reddy and Chandrababu Naidu. There is no doubt in my mind that these two played a role either directly or indeirectly in helping robber raju pull this trick. And look at the people supporting this robber raju. I have observed one thing reading various articles. People of his caste are steadfast in supporting him no matter what. Its a pity that we as a nation have stooped to that level where we cannot differentiate between right and wrong. People who think in terms of caste are the scumbags that will keep this country backward. Unfortunately, we have way too many of these sleazeballs in our society.

From Vinay

January 11, 2009 7:32 PM
@P.S.Hariharan Thanks mister for branding the "Rajus" in your own words as fraudstars. I am from the Raju's community. Though I belong to the same clan Raju's, I have never interacted with Mr.Ramalinga Raju or anybody like that. I am currently pursuing my MBA program in Hyderabad and thanks to knuckleheaded morons like you who put words like these and create an impression for that particular segment of the population,I am sure to face problems while I start hunting for jobs in a month or so. Grow up Mr.P.S.Hariharan. I can also name you Pineheaded Shithole Hariharan or wotever ur family name is you moron! What Mr.Ramalinga Raju did is bloody not right. He should be penalised. But creating an oblivion for a particular race just by judging on a particular persons act isnt right. Am getting back to my studies now hoping that smarta#%$@ like you do not create any more damage n pray that I get a respectable job whithout me being a Raju hindering me!! Cheers!

From Sidney

January 12, 2009 9:30 PM
Vinay, Chill out, buddy. If you think that potential recruiters are going to make recruiting decisions based on casteist remarks of P.S. HAriharan, then we're really in for a bad ride. I think you'll be just fine. Hariharan can continue his inane rant. Unfortunately, the Satyamites, for not fault of their's, are going to have to deal with some social stigma. I had a few friends who were at Enron - all of them were exceptionally sharp and had an ethical conduct that was beyond rapproach - folks in the US were mature enough to realize that Andy Fastow and his ilk formed a very tiny minority of the Enron population and none of my frineds, who were all junior and middle management, were ever looked down upon. That's the maturity (to isolate Raju from the other ~50,000 Satyamites), we need in this case. I have friends at Satyam - I feel bad for them. Do I feel bad for the perpeterators - absolutely not!

From Syam Babu

January 14, 2009 10:19 PM
Mr.Satyam Must Be Freed and allowed to run Satyam as he ever did. All comapanies do window dressing. What about so much dues from I.T.c to Govt. of India ?

From Time Pilot

March 19, 2009 2:44 AM
http://www.archive.org/web/web.php this is called the wayback machine. it is a graveyard for websites that it has catalogued.

From Profit Siphon - Grab Your Share Of The Billions. | 7Wins.eu

June 18, 2009 9:48 PM

Pingback from  Profit Siphon - Grab Your Share Of The Billions. | 7Wins.eu

From Sandeep Varma

July 11, 2009 11:10 PM
Mr.Ramalinga Raju founded the company 25 years ago with an intention to generate revenue to our Country and given future to thousands of employees and met with their aspirations. Lets dont forget the social work he has contributed which no other big people dare to do,even big politicians and CEOs. Why cant we think it as a political game played on him and he is made the culprit. Anyways,lets watch the happenings patiently and hope for his good time to come. “In the cellars of the night, when the mind starts moving around old trunks of bad times, the pain of this and the shame of that, the memory of a small boldness is a hand to hold.” John Leonard.

From Nids

September 5, 2009 3:04 PM
Hi, I have been following your blog for a couple of days now and I find it reallly interesting. It keeps me going through the boring day at office without falling asleep. I was associated with Satyam for a very short span of time of less than one year. And then Jan 7th happened, when Raju resigned. The media broke the news to us (employees). We were shocked no doubt and then, all of us saw media personnel flooding our entrances and exits to office. All of us frantically followed the news. The next day, ironically the weather was dark and dull. There was no breeze and it was dark, as though even the sun was feeling abashed. There was a strike of petrol pumps. City had almost come to a standstill. Afterall, Satyam was one of the brand names of Hyderabad. A couple of days after that, e-mails were floated around propogating Raju's innocence and his beneign intension of saving Satyam from being takeover by other IT giants. Debates, discussion and even polls were started. "Save your Raju. Raju is innocent. SMS your replies to ##### with a YES or NO." On Jan 6th, I had circulated a MoM (Minutes of Meeting) of a meeting that would have paved the way for transition of our small team. Post Jan 7th, STANDSTILL. It turned our lives around. My boss who had been associated with Satyam for more than 8 years, had trouble sleeping for weeks all together. Now, majority of us (who had joined the company no earlier than a year before) have been sabbaticalised. Inflation of figures, monetary and physical (that of employees) was a deliberate action to showcase strength. something, that we youngsters are beginning to loose in our battle with recession. P.S. No fingers pointed at anyone.

POST YOUR COMMENT

:
(required)
 
Email Address
(required)
   
(optional)
(HTML not allowed)