From a technocrat turned fraudster Ramalinga Raju's confession to the snub-nosed Nano, 2009 offered some forgettable and many memorable moments in business.
Not just the domestic turf, in the international arena too, India had its share of fame. Indians like banker Chanda Kochhar and cola queen Indra Nooyi emerged among the world's powerful, while Nagpur-born Vikram Pandit managed to remain at the helm of crisis-ravaged Citigroup.
And the high profile tussle between billionaire Ambani brothers - Mukesh and Anil - made headlines, with the siblings' battle over the pricing of gas from KG Basin moving to the Supreme Court.
Shocking the corporate world on a cool January morning, former Satyam Computer Services chairman Ramalinga Raju admitted to cooking up the company's account books over a period of nearly seven years - a period when he is estimated to have allegedly siphoned off nearly Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion).
Making the Indian middle class dream of owning a car affordable, Ratan Tata's vision turned into a reality on the roads, as the much-awaited Nano hit the roads this year.
In March, Tatas officially launched Nano -- the Rs 1-lakh (Rs 100,000) car--, billed as the cheapest in the world.
Reflecting Indians' growing clout in the international stage, ICICI Bank Chief Chanda Kocchar was named among the 100 Most Powerful Women globally by Forbes magazine.
Ranking her at the 20th spot in the list, Forbes noted that after "topping her B-school class, she joined ICICI 25 years ago as a management trainee, when it was a wholesale lending institution".
"Proved her smarts when she was given responsibility for bank's fledgling retail business and helped transform ICICI into a retail banking powerhouse," it had said in August.
One of the well known corporate names, India-origin Nooyi, was named the most powerful woman in the US business by the Fortune magazine this year.
Writing about Nooyi, who is the chairman and chief executive officer of soft drinks and beverages major PepsiCo, the publication had said that she is back on top for the fourth year, delivering strong profits on $43 billion in sales.
In a letter to Satyam board in January, Raju revealed forging accounts of the company for many years and added that he had been carrying on his conscience with "tremendous burden".
Right from Raju along with associates going behind the bars to the government superseding its board, the events that followed has literally revamped the country's corporate governance facade.
The Raju scam also saw strong words from the international media.
'The huge accounting scandal at Satyam, one of India's biggest information-technology firms, could lead to an overhaul of corporate-governance standards in the country. . . The general standard of corporate ethics and accounting have traditionally been poor in India,' The Wall Street Journal had reported.
About the episode, the New York Times had said that the long-running fraud, 'which is being called India's Enron, also raised questions about the vigilance of regulators in India and the United States'.
The Ambani brothers were in the news mainly for the RIL-RNRL gas dispute. While Anil Ambani-led RNRL is seeking gas at a committed price of $2.34 per unit, elder brother Mukesh Ambani-led RIL has said it cannot honour the commitment made in the family agreement reached four years back due to government's pricing and gas policy.
In October, Anil reached out to his estranged brother Mukesh, saying that all disagreements can be sorted out in a cordial and conciliatory manner. Anil's approach, which came after he returned from a pilgrimage to Kedarnath and Badrinath, was rejected by Mukesh.
At that time, British daily The Financial Times had written that 'the Himalayan episode shows how intractable the differences between India's richest brothers have become'.
Meanwhile, Vikram Pandit withstood Citi's split, problems with regulators and has even managed to improve the banking behemoth's financial situation.
Globally, the Wall Street's cup of frauds brimmed with Madoffs and Rajaratnams.
Described by many as an epic fraud, once-revered trader Bernard Madoff admitted to cheating investors to the tune of $50 billion. He would now spend the rest of his life in jail, serving 150 years of imprisonment.
Another billionaire Sir Allen Standford being accused of swindling as much as $8 billion. Rajaratnam, the founder of Galleon hedge fund, has been indicted for insider trading activities, which resulted in profits worth $21 million.
