The Hindu Business Line : The message is clear

India hopes to generate billions by keeping awake when the US works. And losing no time are the IT-enabled services and software sectors that are lobbying for US business in an unprecedented way. Their task is tough: to promote India but without giving room for resentment. How are they going about it? Just read on...

LAW-MAKING in the US was something that all of us could well ignore. But not anymore. Every time an American Senator introduces a Bill that seeks to protect local jobs, all hell breaks loose in India. The media goes on an overdrive to suggest that the country's crown jewel, the software industry, is in peril due to such `diabolic' acts by US politicians. And the funny thing about the issue is that Americans still can't figure out why there's such brouhaha in a country that sleeps when they work, on the other side of the world.

Well, such panic is but natural in a country that hopes to ride on the new industry, give employment to millions and generate billions by keeping awake when America works. India's fledgling IT-enabled services (ITES) and robust software industries know that they cannot afford to take any chances and the sudden backlash against outsourcing has made them launch an unprecedented global lobbying.

Are we capable of doing it? And how are we going about it? These questions arise since the high-tech industry in India has so far never had to undertake such a mission. During the pre-Y2K days and dotcom boom times, India's software talent was the most sought-after across the world simply because of the demand-supply mismatch. And those days, all that the industry had to do was to lobby with the country's government to get tax concessions and the right policies for furthering the fortunes of the industry. Nasscom and the late Dewang Mehta, who evangelised the industry with an inimitable panache in the 1990s, did that fittingly. And the industry flourished.

Test of a lifetime

Things have changed now - unfortunately for the worse. The dotcom bust, economic slowdown and massive job cuts in the US have resulted in the present crisis. Nasscom, the apex association for the software industry, is probably having the test of its lifetime, trying to avert the trouble that may ensue if a slew of Bills pending with American senates get enacted. What makes matters worse is the move to tighten visa norms by many countries, including the US, which accounts for over 70 per cent of India's software exports.

"It's a very, very tough job," admits Sunil Mehta, Nasscom's Vice-President. Sunil dashes off to the US once in every three weeks to pow-wow with US lawmakers and other influential individuals "The issue in common man's perception there is that of people losing jobs. So the hostility is much more," says an IT industry person. Sunil doesn't want to talk about his lobbying skills lest it should create more hurdles, but industry sources say that Nasscom has so far been successful in diluting and keeping in abeyance the much-loathed New Jersey Bill introduced by Democratic State Senator, Shirley Turner. The Association has also hired Hill and Knowlton, an influential lobbying firm in the US, to protect the industry's interests.

Software companies in India are making a concerted effort this time around. While in the past, Dewang Mehta and his team in the Nasscom Secretariat would get most of their demands done by running around in North Block, the companies have realised that the issue here is global and they need to go out in the sun to get around them. Industry sources say many top people in the industry personally met officials and industry people in the US to appraise them about the benefits of outsourcing. Almost all Nasscom members have agreed to pay a share of their profits, in addition to their annual fees, to bear the costs of the international campaigning the association has mounted, it is learned.

`It's $2 for $1'

In their marketing strategies too, software firms have been told not to tom-tom much about the strong growth of the Indian software industry, the jobs it creates and the wealth it brings to the nation. Instead, they've been advised to focus more on the economic benefits their clients get by outsourcing to India. The idea is to curb any resentment that may arise by the feeling that India is benefiting at the cost of others.

Along with local software firms, the Indian arms of multinational technology firms too give out a helping hand since it's they who immensely benefit by outsourcing to India. When such firms are engaged in the process, their names certainly carry a lot of weight in the US and networking and access become easier. The US-based TiE and other similar associations, formed by successful Indian entrepreneurs in the Silicon Valley, also do a great job by voicing India's concerns to the right people.

"Today, outsourcing is seen as a zero-sum game where one job lost in the US is one job gained by India. But we need to educate them that for every one dollar outsourced to India, the US economy is earning two dollars," Sunil says. Such kind of education is one strategy the industry has adopted against the outcry against outsourcing to India.

Nasscom estimates the savings to the US economy by offshoring to Indian alone would be in the range of $10-11 billion. In addition to this, there are high-tech imports from US to India worth about $3 billion, contribution by Indian IT professionals to US social security worth $0.5 billion and income-tax paid by Indian techies to the tune of $0.5 billion. Add to this the $1.8 billion annual spending by them in the US, the total benefits to the US economy is around $16.8 billion, nearly twice as much of the projected software exports to the US of $8.5 billion in 2003-04.

Gartner India's Managing Director, Sujay Chohan, seconds the industry's approach towards lobbying. "The industry is doing a very good job by making information available to the US authorities. You need to make a counterview to them," he says. Now it's time for the government to get into the act and do its bit, Sujay believes, since government-to-government level interactions would go a long way in addressing the issues related to visas and work permits. And such efforts have already begun in right earnest.

Kiran Karnik, Nasscom President, says that such backlashes are to be here and the industry must learn to live with them. In view of this, may be, Nasscom is evaluating a proposal to establish an office in the US. This might be a reality after three months. "We are now making an effort but still a lot of work needs to be done. We need to understand lobbying," says Raman Roy, President and CEO of Wipro Spectramind. Sunil feels that one big hurdle that the industry needs to get over in its lobbing efforts is engaging with the US media. For the official who is going to man the proposed US office of Nasscom, the task is indeed cut out.

vipin@thehindu.co.in

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