New Delhi, Oct. 31 -- In 2008, Ramalinga Raju had the world at his feet. India's IT industry was poised for take-off, following the boost from the turn-of-the-century Y2K scare, which sent global corporations scrambling to Indian vendors for fixes to their software programmes. The threat proved largely a red herring, but the discovery of Indian IT talent was real. India's software exports had soared from $6.3 billion in 2000-01 to $47 billion in 2008-09, and despite the financial crisis, the long-term outlook was bright.

Satyam Computer Services, the company Raju had founded in 1987, was among the front-runners of this boom. It had closed the previous year with reported revenues of Rs.8,473 crore and profits of Rs.1,688 crore, ranking fo...