Indian software maker Infosys has dug in its heels over whistle-blower complaints about its finances, with non-executive chairman Nandan Nilekani declaring on Wednesday: “Even God cannot change Infosys’ numbers”. Nilekani was responding to analysts’ questions on a conference call and his combative response reflects how the IT services giant, which reported US$12.4 billion in revenue for the final quarter of last financial year, is handling the accusations. He added that “customers are supportive” and despite the “distraction”, Infosys CEO Salil Parekh had informed him about a “large deal” recently. Nilekani threw the board’s weight firmly behind the Infosys leadership team, effectively repeating the company’s earlier stance that there has been no wrongdoing on the part of the management even though the probe is still not complete. “Infosys strongly condemns the mischievous insinuations made by anonymous sources against the co-founders and former colleagues, suggesting their involvement in the recent whistle-blower allegations,” he said in an official statement. Parekh was named alongside Chief Financial Officer Nilanjan Roy by anonymous whistle-blowers last month, who said “unethical practices” had been used to boost revenue and profit in recent quarters. The whistle-blowers added that the firm’s recent “big deal wins” may have come with negligible margins. They asked the board of the Indian company to investigate and take action, offering to provide emails and voice recordings to support their allegations. The second whistle-blower attack in as many years dented investor confidence in Asia’s second-most valuable software exporter, and sent a gauge of 30-day historical volatility for its shares soaring to the highest since 2013. A previous complaint triggered the exit of then CEO Vishal Sikka after a confrontation with co-founder Narayana Murthy. While the merits of the allegations are yet to be fully ascertained amid the ongoing independent investigation, the company’s approach to the matter has been a cause of concern – emblematic of the Indian corporate world which makes it enormously difficult for employees to voice protests against senior staff members, let alone top executives, analysts said. “The statement of November 4 [in which Infosys disputed the allegations] doesn’t provide any new information and leaves investors confused. Especially when the shareholders are expecting the final investigation report, the company could have waited for the final document,” said Shriram Subramanian, founder and CEO of shareholder advisory firm InGovern Research. The India advantage: why China’s tech workforce can’t gain traction in Silicon Valley Harit Shah, research analyst with the brokerage firm Reliance Securities, concurred that it was premature of Infosys to release a statement before the investigation had been concluded. “The company has faced a lot of issues in the past as well and there have been controversies. [But] they eventually managed to come out of it,” said Shah, adding that Infosys will emerge stronger if the current allegations are found to be without merit. For now, there have been no obvious indications of concern from Infosys’ investors and clients, but speculative reports in Indian media and murmurs among the business community paint a slightly different picture. Infosys’ shares fell by up to 17 per cent when the claims were made public in late October but have slowly recovered. With a 220,000-strong workforce and a market capitalisation of US$46 billion, Infosys is India’s second-largest software services firm after Tata Consultancy Services in terms of revenue. Serious concerns have been raised about why there was a delay in the company informing stock exchanges and its non-executive board about the accusations. But Infosys has more than once defended its actions as lawful. Battling for billions: the family feuds scarring corporate India Given the 38-year-old company’s stellar reputation, Indian regulators have been tight-lipped about developments and are treading cautiously with the official investigation – initially, the regulators had only asked Infosys for an explanation on what is happening instead of swiftly launching a full-blown probe. Following conflicting media reports, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) confirmed it is officially beginning its own investigations – using a rule book that was largely drafted based on Infosys’ corporate governance practices of the 1990s. The US’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier launched its own inquiry after the Infosys whistle-blowing group registered a complaint with it, while a class-action lawsuit has also been initiated in a New York court. Formal proceedings over the allegations were slightly delayed in India and that is likely because Indian regulatory bodies do not offer the option to file complaints anonymously. To buttress their claim, the whistle-blowing group reportedly shared voice recordings and emails with the SEC, but not with any Indian government bodies or the Infosys board. “These whistle-blower complaints were very specific and provided some level of detail which merited serious and urgent attention from the Infosys board,” said Subramanian of InGovern Research. “Initially, the company didn’t take it seriously but once the media picked it up and the markets tanked, only then did they institute a third-party law firm.” As one of the country’s major multinational corporations, Infosys helped put India on the map as an information technology hub, but the recent allegations have put the firm to the test – and could shake the very foundations of Indian corporate governance standards. Additional reporting by Bloomberg