Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Scam Andhra
Jawaharlal Nehru once described Hyderabad as a microcosm of Indian culture. He was
praising it for its blending of culture and religion. Today it can still be seen as a microcosm
of the country's culture - for the negative reason that the good India's first prime minister
saw at the time of independence has been squandered by the corruption and illicit links
between companies and government that are now part of India's political and business land-
scape.
A decade or so ago, Hyderabad - and the state of Andhra Pradesh whose capital it is -
was a focal point in southern India of a booming information technology industry. It had
become an international symbol of a country that saw itself growing into a world super-
power alongside China. Bill Clinton visited it in 2000 when he was US President, mark-
ing Hyderabad's emergence as India's second high-technology centre after Bengaluru. Bill
Gates of Microsoft, which set up its main India research facility in a new software zone
along with Google, was not far behind, plus many others.
Now the city has become a symbol of what is wrong with India. It embraces dynastic
political ambitions based on personal greed and the lauding of companies that have grown
fat on fraudulent land and other deals, literally plundering the state's wealth. The trend first
became widely noticed in 2009, when the Hyderabad-based Satyam, India's fourth largest
software company, collapsed in a fraud scandal involving local politicians and a promin-
Satyam (it is now part of the Mumbai-based Mahindra Group) so as to prevent it harming
the country's then buoyant image, but they could not save Hyderabad's deteriorating repu-
tation.
Indian and international investors had until then paid little attention to the political-busi-
ness linkages and scams. That was no longer possible from 2009 because it soon became
clear that Satyam and its allied infrastructure company, Maytas (Satyam spelt in reverse),
were just the tip of a vast iceberg that gradually became exposed after the state's Con-
gress chief minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR), was killed in a helicopter crash in
triggered a series of events that led to widespread police inquiries, court cases, and the jail-
ing of businessmen and politicians.
A frantic campaign was launched within hours of the crash for Jagan (YSJ or Jagan as
he was known to differentiate him from his father, YSR) to succeed him as chief minis-
