India Inc takes on US politicians (Someone is Getting Jittery)

[OhioChick]

2/22/2008 9:32:06 AM

The outsourcing debate rages on and this time, India Inc which is facing the heat from US Presidential candidates especially Democrat hopeful Barack Obama who has blamed Indians for the rising unemployment in the country. Corporate India in retaliation has launched a counter-offensive saying India is gifting jobs, not stealing them.

An image of Barack Obama echoeing what many of his voters feel - the anti-outsourcing rhetoric - has not surprisingly upset India Inc. But its not something they're going to take lying down.

In a counter-offensive, a full-page advertisement published in an American newspaper provides elaborate accounts of how India is "gifting" thousands of jobs to Americans and not "stealing" them.

This is not how Obama would have it seem. He's been saying quite the opposite. Sample this excerpt from a Barack Obama speech at a rally in Ohio only two days ago, telling his voters that their jobs have been stolen, taken away by offshore companies that set up in places like China and India:

Obama said: "We're here because there are workers in Youngstown, Ohio, who've watched job after job after job disappear because of bad trade deals....They need us to end those tax breaks that go to companies that ship jobs overseas."

In fact, Obama has even vowed to curb offshoring by introducing a tax scheme that will reward American firms that do not ship jobs overseas. This undoubtedly is a dangerous predicament for India Inc and hundreds of thousands of BPO workers back home could be at risk of losing their jobs if Obama has his way.

According to FICCI, Indian corporate investments in the country were over $10.25 billion in 2007 - but it is the timing of this advertisement which is crucial as well as interesting, coming as it does in the thick of the American debate on outsourcing.

Speaking on the advertisement, Sanjay Puri, Chairman of the USINPAC - US India Political Action Committee said he understood the sensitivities where it came from.

"I understand... because Senator Obama is from Chicago and also a senator from Illinois, but Chicago also happens to be the heart of the Midwest, also the manufacturing base and also part of our big industrial states. So the idea is that hey, Indian companies are coming in and they are working and investing in manufacturing - and it's not just the coast, whether it's New York or San Francisco or the Bay area or California - they are going into the heartland also and investing and that was what they were trying to do," said Puri. He added that the outsourcing issue coming up in the campaign was related to the state of the US economy.

"It will be an issue directly proportionate to how much the US economy is in a problem, if the economy gets worse you will see that come up more in the dialogue of the presidential campaign," said Puri.

http://www.timesnow.tv/Newsdtls.aspx?NewsID=6098

"gifting" thousands of jobs to Americans"

My Ass. Go Obama!

Makes one feel that India Inc. is interested in "another candidate."

[thunder rising]

1. How about they keep their "gifts" and we'll keep our jobs.

[thunder rising]

4. "published in an American newspaper" but no name of the paper. Reuters is slipping

Suddenly I feel this is just a shit hit piece.

[DJ13]

2. Makes one feel that India Inc. is interested in "another candidate."

Hillary's been schmoozing India's business community so much in the last couple of years she could probably qualify for a dual citizenship by now.

[OhioChick]

3. You're Absolutely Right.

U.S. Senate India Caucus

by Aziz Haniffa in Washington DC (March 31, 2004)

A new bipartisan organisation called 'Friends of India' has been formed in the US Senate, similar to the 10-year-old Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans in the US House of Representatives.

This is the first time in the history of the US Senate that a country-focused caucus has been constituted and announcing its formation was the driving force behind the move Senator John Cornyn, a freshman Republican Senator from Texas who recently visited India.

Cornyn, who was the keynote speaker at the Second Annual Capitol Hill Gala Dinner of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin on Tuesday night following AAPI's two-day legislative conference, said co-chairing 'Friends of India' in the US Senate would be Democratic Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

He said that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican and Minority Leader Thomas Dachle,South Dakota Democrat had also agreed to become members of the Friends of India group and so had 18 other Senators from both sides of the aisle.

http://www.usindiafriendship.net/congress1/senatecaucus/senatecaucus.htm

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Sounds like India has its own lobby group like AIPAC and the Turkish

one that we find out now is the Turkish version of AIPAC.

[Blue State Bandit]

5. He's skirting the entire argument.

It is is not Indian companies that constitute the problem (except in cases where American companies are sold to foreign entities). It is the American companies that move their manufacturing and information technologies infrastructures from the US to countries such as India and China to produce product for American markets.

The problem is companies like Dell, Nike, and a whole host of American textile companies who find that it is cheaper for them to produce their products outside of the country using cheap labor, or even slave labor in some instances, then ship it back to America.

It is my reasoned hypothesis that this is the problem: If the product is produced domestically, even if it costs a bit more, it creates a larger customer base for the product. More employed Americans means more Americans can afford to buy the products, hence, good economy.

When you produce these products overseas, and ship them here, the cost to the consumer is cheaper. But over time, the customer base shrinks; less Americans can afford the products because of the loss of job created by moving the manufacturing off-shore, hence, bad economy.

So while the statement by this FICCI representative may be technically correct, he has not addressed the concerns that Senator Obama has expressed on this issue.

[ChromeFoundry]

7. This sunk like a rock.

Wonder why?

[OhioChick]

8. Yep. Crickets. nt/

[thoughtcrime1984]

9. !

[Scurrilous]

10. K & R

:thumbsup: