The intensity of public interest in Satyam is something which Anand Mahindra, the vice-chairman and managing director of the eponymous tractors-to-software group, hadn’t quite baragained for when he first decided to bid for the scam-hit IT major. The software industry, he says, has become an icon of modern India, and the Satyam debacle had eroded public trust which meant that anyone taking over the troubled company would face the burden of immense public expectation.

“I didn’t realise the impact this would have on the public arena. I really hadn’t understood the extent to which people in the public domain had got their emotions involved in this. The IT industry had clearly been a champion and a symbol of India’s new self-esteem. And the unfortunate vicissitudes of Satyam had begun to erode that,” Mr Mahindra said in the course of a lengthy interaction with ET NOW, this paper’s business channel.

Despite the burdens and responsibilities, the upside of a successful turnaround is potentially enormous for the $6.5-billion M&M group. “The kind of feedback we have got since then—a lot of it exaggerated sometimes, including reactions about our being white knights and saving the situation—are surprising to me. They also bring a huge burden and responsibility to us. So, in that sense, I think if we succeed in turning around Satyam, clearly it will have added dramatically to the reputation of our group.”

For Mr Mahindra, turning Satyam around is top priority. It’s a job which is perfectly feasible, he says, for despite the misdeeds of its former promoters, the now-disgraced Ramalinga Raju, Mahindra Satyam, as it is now called, is a real company with considerable capabilities. “Anyone who makes time frames beyond tomorrow probably isn’t pushing himself hard enough, so I’d like to turn Satyam around tomorrow,” he said.

The reason for his confidence comes from the feedback from customers during various road shows. “All the customers we met said that arguably, these were among the best people from a delivery point of view. These were real people who were very customer-centric. Once I knew from customers that these were real people doing a real job and really delivering value, it became doable.”