Gearing for governance

MAJORDA BEACH

FEBRUARY 12, 2007

"Business risks are far greater today than they were in the past. In
such a scenario the onus on the CIO has grown manifold, and he or she has to
gear up and respond to those challenges," said Pradeep Gupta, Publisher and
MD, CyberMedia India.

Delivering a keynote on Business Compliance in a Globalized Economy at the
CIOL C-Change 2007, Gupta said that post accounting scandals like Enron and
WorldCom, globally there is an increasing awareness on such inaccuracies and
deliberate falsification of data.

He compared the scenario of corporate accountability within and outside the
country. "While Indian companies score well on the international front,
they seem not to have done much on the domestic front."

At a time when India is going global there is supreme confidence in the
companies as they chart a global course. "The biggest indication of India
going global can be drawn from the fact that India is now the second largest
investor in the UK after the US. With Indian companies going increasingly
global, there is far greater stress on companies to comply with international
regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley and Rule 49," Gupta stated.

He also drew parallels with the Right to Information Act. Companies must be
prepared for same kind of transparency as they expect the government to be.
"Organizations should work with the mindset of providing suo moto
information," he said.

(c) CyberMedia News