The disclosure that Wipro, the third biggest Indian outsourcing company, was banned from doing business with the World Bank for four years in June 2007, does not exactly improve confidence in the sector following the Satyam Computer Services scandal.
The ban was imposed because Wipro allegedly “provided improper benefits” to World Bank staff by offering some of them shares in its 2000 initial public offering. Wipro denies doing anything wrong and says it did little business with the World Bank anyway.
Still, it would not take many further disclosures for the Satyam fraud to develop into broader questions about ethical standards in the Indian outsourcing industry.
In view of all this, I have accepted that invitation to the Wipro dinner hosted by Azim Premji, its chairman, in Davos later this month. It promises to be interesting.
