Vishal Sikka

R Seshasayee

TOI in an exclusive interview

The Infosys drama has spilled into public domain with Murthy hinting at hush money...

Sikka:

Seshasayee:

Murthy also spoke about having

on the board as a co-chair. Has he conveyed it to you?

Seshasayee

There is mention of the CEO's so-called profligacy. When you look at the cultural issues, do you think it's one of the key concerns?

Sikka:

There's a whistleblower letter sent to media houses and

, with a long list of allegations against you and the board...

Sikka:

Will you dig deep into it?

Seshasayee:

Sikka:

There's speculation that some of the shareholders in Panaya and Skava, which Infosys acquired, were your ex-SAP colleagues...

Sikka

Seshasayee

Sikka:

The whistleblower letter alleges concerns around aggressive accounting practices -an issue around whether there was change in the revenue recognition model...

Seshasayee

Do you think all these issues have distracted you to an extent where you're 1-1.5 years behind schedule? Will you achieve your 2020 target of $20-billion revenue?

Sikka:

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas is working towards a corporate governance framework.What does this lead to?

Seshasayee:

Would you be sharing a report after Cyril makes it observations?

Seshasayee

Will there be a process of sustained dialogue with the founders that such things are not played out in the public?

Sikka

Murthy has said that forensic audit (on Bansal's severance payout) has been done after a year of the development. Is Murthy asking a pertinent question on the timing of the audit done?

Seshasayee

BENGALURU: In an exclusive interview to TOI immediately after meeting the media, Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka on Monday evening described a whistleblower's letter as "a direct, reckless, malicious, slanderous and personal attack on me by diabolical minds. I will not tolerate it. It is unacceptable. If somebody attacks me personally , we will follow whatever legal recourse we have to after that."The letter, a copy of which is in TOI's possession, alleges that former chief financial officer Rajiv Bansal was paid a massive Rs 17.4 crore as severance in exchange for his silence on certain accounting practice and an overseas acquisition.Asked about co-founder NR Narayana Murthy's statement that he would like someone like the US-based finance professor Marti G Subrahmanyam as a cochair, Infosys chairman R Seshasayee , who also spoke with TOI, said, "He has conveyed it to the public. It is for us to say whether Marti is the right person, or somebody else is the right person. We have to take a decision; we will take the decision in the interest of shareholders at large.""I left India barely in my teens, and I came of age in the US. Twenty-eight years later, I was walking into an alien setting when I returned. I was reassured by the integrity and culture of Infosys, and I will not let it down on my watch," said an emotional, wearing his trademark black-Tee. "I have had just 90 minutes of sleep since yesterday," said the embattled Infosys CEO, emerging from a marathon media briefing on Monday.Sikka, along with Infosys chairman, spoke to..There is no hush money. It's irresponsible for the media to say that. He said it in a very logical kind of a context.You have got it wrong. He (Murthy) gave an analogy of drinking milk under a toddy tree. There is no hush money , that's not what he meant.: He has conveyed it to the public. It is for us to say whether Marti is the right person, or somebody else is the right person, we have to take a decision. We will take the decision in the interest of shareholders at large.I don't. In the last three months, I did two chartered flights -both were one-way flights because it was impossible to make that happen between meetings. The chartered flights during the whole of 2016 were 3,000 miles out of the total 103,000 miles I clocked, which is less than 3%. I did 99 commercial flights of 780 hours and 17 chartered flights of 39 hours, so it's less than 5% in terms of miles or hours.I think it's a perception built on lack of data. If I was interested in flying around in corporate jets, I wouldn't have flown one way.That is an outrageous letter, an incredibly irresponsible one. To say slanderous and malicious things would not be strong enough. It's a direct attack on the company and me personally by diabolical minds.We have a policy: Even anonymous letters, which you're referring to, are taken seriously. A lot of what is mentioned in the letter is incorrect. Still, we will go through the process of getting an independent firm to look at it.We will see what comes of it and take action. We have to look at the credibility of what has been said.What I have seen of the letter is a direct, reckless and a personal attack on me. I will not tolerate it. I want to make it clear -that kind of a thing is unacceptable. If somebody attacks me personally , we will follow whatever legal recourse we have to go after that. We have to investigate those things, but as I said, it's a very malicious, personal attack on me. That's not who I am and that's not who we are. It's unacceptable.: That's nonsense. We have had third parties evaluating these acquisitions and their valuations. Panaya is a picture perfect example of the automation story that I talk about. Hasso Plattner (SAP co-founder) was an investor in Panaya. That makes no difference. Infosys was aware of the company many years before.: In the tech field, buying companies which have people whom you know and trust and depend on is very normal.This is a man (Plattner) worth more than $10 billion. And 5-6% stake in a $200million company is nothing.Skava was brought to us by Suryaprakash (an Infosys veteran, he was part of executive council of Skava). This is a kind of fabrication and is not only malicious, but it is very irrational.: There was no change in revenue recognition. Even the whistleblower complaint recognises that there was no change. On the Panaya valuation, there was a third-party valuation by Deutsche Bank and it gave a band, so the acquisition largely was within the band.(Laughs) I would not characterise it that way . These are not targets or goals, but aspirations we continue to work towards. Our revenue performance, market performance is something that's the collective responsibility of the management team and the company . Yes, these are distractions we can live without. We will do our jobs.Board compensation, for example. If you take people who are reposed by a group of shareholders -nominees, independent -how do you characterise it? You had questions in the media about D N Prahlad as independent. But he came back and said, 'Let's do a framework where we will develop a criteria as to who is going to be independent and who's not independent'. Is legal criteria good enough for us or should we expand on that, and should we look at a higher level of attributes, which will give independence? These are the things that will evolve.: Internally, yes.This is a document which we will use as a guidepost for internal processes and decision-making.: I don't have a process of meeting the promoters. I meet Mr Murthy four or five times a year and we talk about all kinds of things, and sometimes he gives me precise advice on some exotic things like, 'Vishal, you must hire 200 people of this kind and put 40 in Bhubaneswar, 60 here and 20 l there'. And then he forgets about it the next day. And we talk about quantum physics and the Apple watch. I haven't met Nandan (Nilekani) for two years and I have read that I was given a letter by Nandan -I have not even seen the man or talked to him since April of 2015. I haven't met Kris (Gopalakrishnan) for a year and at half except on a flight between k Bengaluru and Frankfurt , and I haven't talked to Shibulal for more than a year.: The forensic audit was done immediately after the whistleblower complaint came and, therefore, it happened only after that. We could do a forensic audit if we didn't have a provocation for doing it.In any case, it proved there was nothing in it and it couldn't have been done earlier.