About ASCI

Advertising Standards Council of India is a self regulatory voluntary organization of the advertising industry. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), established in 1985, is committed to the cause of Self-Regulation in Advertising, ensuring the protection of the interests of consumers. The ASCI was formed with the support of all four sectors connected with Advertising, viz. Advertisers, Ad Agencies, Media (including Broadcasters and the Press) and others like PR Agencies, Market Research Companies etc. Its main objective is to promote responsible advertising thus enhancing the public's confidence in Advertising. Their mandate is that all advertising material must be truthful, legal and honest, decent and not objectify women, safe for consumers - especially children and last but not the least, fair to their competitors. ASCI is represented in all committees working on advertising content in every Ministry of the Government of India. ASCIs Code for Self-Regulation in Advertising is now part of ad code under Cable TV Acts Rules. Violation of ASCIs Code is now violation of Govt. rules. ASCIs membership of The European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) ensures that it gets valuable advice, learning and even influence at the international level. The Consumer Complaints Council is ASCI's heart and soul. It is the dedicated work put in by this group of highly respected people that has given tremendous impetus to the work of ASCI and the movement of self-regulation in the advertising.

Role & Function of ASCI

The Role and Functioning of the ASCI & its Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) in dealing with Complaints received from Consumers and Industry, against Ads which are considered as False, Misleading, Indecent, Illegal, leading to Unsafe practices, or Unfair to competition, and consequently in contravention of the ASCI Code for Self-Regulation in Advertising. ASCI is a voluntary self-regulatory council, registered as a not-for-profit Company under section 25 of the Indian Cos. Act. The sponsors of the ASCI, who are its principal members, are firms of considerable repute within Industry in India, and comprise Advertisers, Media, Ad. Agencies and other Professional /Ancillary services connected with advertising practice. The ASCI is not a Government body, nor does it formulate rules for the public or for the relevant industries. The Purpose and the Mission of the ASCI is spelt out clearly in the literature provided.

You will appreciate that if an AD is to be reviewed for its likely impact on the sensibilities of individual viewers of TV, or readers of press publications, we require to convey to the Advertiser concerned, the substantial issues raised in the complaint, in the exact context of the specific Ad, as conveyed by the perception of the complainant, and to elicit the appropriate response by way of comments from the Advertiser. Only then will the CCC, of the ASCI, be in a position to deliberate meaningfully on the issues involved, and to arrive at a fair and objective conclusion, which would stand the scrutiny of all concerned with the right to freedom of expression, and the freedom of consumers to choose the products /services made available to them in the market-place. For this we require in each case a clearly readable copy or clipping of the Ad under complaint, with full particulars of name and date of publication, or a printout of an Ad or promotion on a Website or in case of a T.V. Commercial, the channel, date and time or programme of airing, and a description of the contents of the TVC, along with a hard copy of the complete complaint preferably signed by the complainant.

ASCI Codes
THE CODE FOR SELF-REGULATION IN ADVERTISING PERTINENT EXTRACTS Adopted by THE ADVERTISING STANDARDS COUNCIL OF INDIA under Article 2(ii)f of its Articles of Association at the first meeting of the Board of Governors held on November 20, 1985 and amended in February 1995 and in June 1999. Declaration of Fundamental Principles This Code for Self-Regulation has been drawn up by people in professions and industries in or connected with advertising, in consultation with representatives of people affected by advertising and has been accepted by individuals, corporate bodies and associations engaged in or otherwise concerned with the practice of advertising with the following as basic guidelines with a view to achieve the acceptance of fair advertising practices in the best interests of the ultimate consumer:

To ensure the truthfulness and honesty of representations and claims made by advertisements and to safeguard against misleading advertisements. To ensure that advertisements are not offensive to generally accepted standards of public decency. Advertisements should contain nothing indecent, vulgar or repulsive which is likely, in the light of generally prevailing standards of decency and propriety, to cause grave or widespread offence To safeguard against the indiscriminate use of Advertising in situations or of the promotion of products which are regarded as hazardous or harmful to society or to individuals, particularly minors, to a degree or of a type which is unacceptable to society at large. To ensure that advertisements observe fairness in competition so that the consumers need to be informed on choices in the market-place and the canons of generally accepted competitive behaviour in business are both served. Both the general public and an advertisers competitors have an equal right to expect the

content of advertisements to be presented fairly, intelligibly and responsibly. The Code applies to advertisers, advertising agencies and media. Responsibility for the Observance of this Code The responsibility for the observance of this Code for Self-Regulation in Advertising lies with all who commission, create, place or publish any advertisement or assist in the creation or publishing of any advertisement. All advertisers, advertising agencies and media are expected not to commission, create, place or publish any advertisement which is in contravention of this Code. This is a self-imposed discipline required under this Code for Self-Regulation in Advertising from all involved in the commissioning, creation, placement or publishing of advertisements. This Code applies to advertisements read, heard or viewed in India even if they originate or are published abroad so long as they are directed to consumers in India or are exposed to significant number of consumers in India.
THE CODE AND THE LAW The Codes rule are not the only ones to affect advertising.There are many provisions, both in the common law and in the statutes, which can determine the form or the content of an advertisement.The Code is not in competition with law. Its rules, and the machinery through which they are enforced, are designed to complement legal controls, not to usurp or replace them.

The Satyam Computer Services scandal was a corporate scandal that occurred in India in 2009 where Chairman Ramalinga Raju confessed that the company's accounts had been falsified.

Contents

1 Aftermath 2 New CEO and special advisors 3 Acquisition by Mahindra Group 4 Restatement of Results 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

Aftermath
Ramalingam Raju along with 2 other accused of the scandal, had been granted bail from Supreme court on 4 November 2011 as the investigation agency CBI failed to file the chargesheet even after more than 33 months of Raju being arrested. Raju had appointed a task force to address the Maytas situation in the last few days before revealing the news of the accounting fraud. After the scandal broke, the then-

board members elected Ram Mynampati to be Satyam's interim CEO. Mynampati's statement on Satyam's website said: "We are obviously shocked by the contents of the letter. The senior leaders of Satyam stand united in their commitment to customers, associates, suppliers and all shareholders. We have gathered together at Hyderabad to strategize the way forward in light of this startling revelation." On 10 January 2009, the Company Law Board decided to bar the current board of Satyam from functioning and appoint 10 nominal directors. "The current board has failed to do what they are supposed to do. The credibility of the IT industry should not be allowed to suffer." said Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta. Chartered accountants regulator ICAI issued show-cause notice to Satyam's auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on the accounts fudging. "We have asked PwC to reply within 21 days," ICAI President Ved Jain said. On the same day, the Crime Investigation Department (CID) team picked up Vadlamani Srinivas, Satyam's then-CFO, for questioning. He was arrested later and kept in judicial custody.[1] On 11 January 2009, the government nominated noted banker Deepak Parekh, former NASSCOM chief Kiran Karnik and former SEBI member C Achuthan to Satyam's board. Analysts in India have termed the Satyam scandal India's own Enron scandal.[2] Some social commentators see it more as a part of a broader problem relating to India's castebased, family-owned corporate environment.[3] Immediately following the news, Merrill Lynch (now a part of Bank of America) and State Farm Insurance terminated its engagement with the company. Also, Credit Suisse suspended its coverage of Satyam.[citation needed]. It was also reported that Satyam's auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers will be scrutinized for complicity in this scandal. SEBI, the stock market regulator, also said that, if found guilty, its license to work in India may be revoked.[4][5][6][7][8] Satyam was the 2008 winner of the coveted Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Governance under Risk Management and Compliance Issues,[9] which was stripped from them in the aftermath of the scandal.[10] The New York Stock Exchange has halted trading in Satyam stock as of 7 January 2009.[11] India's National Stock Exchange has announced that it will remove Satyam from its S&P CNX Nifty 50-share index on 12 January.[12] The founder of Satyam was arrested two days after he admitted to falsifying the firm's accounts. Ramalinga Raju is charged with several offences, including criminal conspiracy, breach of trust, and forgery. Satyam's shares fell to 11.50 rupees on 10 January 2009, their lowest level since March 1998, compared to a high of 544 rupees in 2008.[13] In New York Stock Exchange Satyam shares peaked in 2008 at US$ 29.10; by March 2009 they were trading around US $1.80.

The Indian Government has stated that it may provide temporary direct or indirect liquidity support to the company. However, whether employment will continue at precrisis levels, particularly for new recruits, is questionable .[14] On 14 January 2009, Price Waterhouse, the Indian division of PricewaterhouseCoopers, announced that its reliance on potentially false information provided by the management of Satyam may have rendered its audit reports "inaccurate and unreliable".[15]. Such reply was disappointment for the general public at large as The Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 clearly states that an auditor is responsible towards the information provided to him by the management and shall be grossly negligent on affairs. [16]. On 22 January 2009, CID told in court that the actual number of employees is only 40,000 and not 53,000 as reported earlier and that Mr. Raju had been allegedly withdrawing 20 crore (US$4 million) every month for paying these 13,000 non-existent employees.[17]

New CEO and special advisors

On 5 February 2009, the six-member board appointed by the Government of India named A. S. Murthy as the new CEO of the firm with immediate effect. Murthy, an electrical engineer, has been with Satyam since January 1994 and was heading the Global Delivery Section before being appointed as CEO of the company. The two-day-long board meeting also appointed Homi Khusrokhan (formerly with Tata Chemicals) and Partho Datta, a Chartered Accountant as special advisors.[18][19]

Acquisition by Mahindra Group

On 13 April 2009, via a formal public auction process, a 46% stake in Satyam was purchased by Mahindra & Mahindra owned company Tech Mahindra, as part of its diversification strategy. Effective July 2009, Satyam rebranded its services under the new Mahindra management as "Mahindra Satyam" with a new corporate website www.MahindraSatyam.com. C.P Gurnani is the current CEO.

Restatement of Results
As a result of the scandal, under the directions of the new Mahindra management team, Satyam Computer Services restated its financial results for the period 2002 to 2008. These restated results were published in September 2009.