Rocked by scandal, Satyam Computer Services Ltd. (ADR: SAY) is embarking on a massive corporate restructuring, but with India’s reputation as an investment destination and world leader in information technology at stake, time is of the essence and the government could be forced to step in with a financial bailout.

“We are considering all options and will soon announce definite steps to help the company overcome the current crisis as it is the question of saving jobs and an international brand,” Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said Monday. “The Prime Minister is closely monitoring the developments on Satyam.”

Indian authorities last Friday detained former Satyam Chairman B. Ramalinga Raju on charges of forgery, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy after the founder of India’s fourth-largest software exporter confessed to falsifying about $1 billion in cash on Satyam’s books and exaggerating his company’s profit margins.

The subsequent plunge of Satyam stock wiped out more than $2.2 billion of investor wealth, and sparked at least three class-action lawsuits in the United States, Bloomberg News reported. 

However, the scandal also undermined India’s reputation for corporate governance and jeopardized the reputation of much of the nation’s prominent outsourcing industry, particularly in Satyam’s home base of Hyderabad. The government has responded with vigor -dismissing the company’s entire board of directors, and replacing it with a new three-man board.

The new, government-appointed board includes Deepak Parekh, chairman of the Housing Development Finance Corp., Kiran Karnik, former president of the National Association of Software Services Companies, and C.