Indian firms change their strategy to counter criticism in the United States

LOS ANGELES: Indian firms engaged in outsourcing for American corporations are changing their strategy to counter criticism in the United States about the harmful effects of their activities. In the midst of the run-up to next year’s US presidential election, when frontrunners Barack Obama and John Edwards are expected to step up their populist opposition to outsourcing, Indian firms have resorted to the tactic of presenting an American face to their PR efforts with politicians. The practice of outsourcing has come under intense fire for creating unemployment in the US. John Kerry, Democratic Party presidential candidate in the 2004 election, had gone to the extent of comparing outsourcing to treason. Image change Indian firms are sharing data on the Indian outsourcing industry with the US firms As part of their carefully calibrated change of tack and in order to humanise the issue, Indian outsourcing firms are increasingly taking Americans to meetings with politicians. However, they are not in any way diluting their contention that outsourcing benefits both India and the United States. The focus of the Indian firms’ campaign is to remove themselves from the limelight and stress that outsourcing is not about themselves, but that it benefits Americans, including the ones in the politicians’ districts. One step in this direction is the hiring of Robert D Blackwill, a former officer in the Bush administration as a lobbyist in Washington in order to humanise the issue. Blackwill, along with executives of Indian companies, has met with staff members of more than 100 US lawmakers. An Indian trade group, which visited the US last May, met with aides to all the major presidential candidates, including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Rudolph W Giuliani and John McCain. About 50 people attended an evening reception hosted by NASSCOM for the India caucus of the House of Representatives. Providing data The New York Times quotes Lakshmi Narayan, chairman of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, as saying, “The moment NASSCOM says something it is a vested interest. So it has decided to provide the data, work behind the scenes, but really to be fronted by the local orgaisations.” Kiran Karnik, president of the Indian trade group said his organisation has collaborated with American firms, sharing data on the Indian outsourcing industry and providing access to Indian companies. He said his group has made symbolic donations of about $10,000 (Rs 4.06 lakh) to $15,000 (Rs 6.09 lakh) to each of the major research organisations it works with. “Because we are able to give them a lot of data on information technology in India, maybe that enables someone to write a good paper on the global trade in services.” The Indian outsourcing companies are also using their own customers, which include the largest American corporations, as proxy soldiers, who help co-ordinate lobbying campaigns in which American chief executives write opinion pieces for newspapers or address Congress on topics that serve the American as well as the Indian companies. “We don’t want to be seen as very active there because it can seem that India is trying to poke its nose in the debate. We would prefer that the active effort of working the Hill is done by US companies,” Karnik said. — Source: New York Times