How Indian tech funds US lobbying
By Bala Shah

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce describes itself as the world's largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations. More than 96 percent of U.S. Chamber members are small businesses with 100 employees or fewer.  Indian tech firms help fund it.

As the voice of American business, the Chamber's core purpose is to fight for free enterprise before Congress, the White House, regulatory agencies, the courts, the court of public opinion, and governments around the world. A January 2010 public opinion survey conducted by Harris Interactive found that Americans rank the U.S. Chamber of Commerce among the top five best-known and respected organizations in Washington. The Chamber consistently leads the pack on lobbying expenditures.

But this powerful American business organization is secretive about its membership.  On its website, it says: “It is the policy of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce not to distribute or make public information about our members. To find out if a specific company is a member, you will have to contact the company directly.”

The US Chamber of Commerce prefers to keep the name of its member’s secret because even as it claims to represent American business interests, it has been accepting funds from Indian IT-ITES companies to lobby its government to outsource more jobs to India.

In Feb, 2010, Techgoss had published an article on how NASSCOM had spent $340,000 lobbying the powers that be in USA.

Award winning American public interest blog Think Progress has just released its research on how India IT-ITES majors have joined the US Chamber of Commerce and help fund its lobbying

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The US Chamber’s anti-American jobs agenda serves not only the profit-seeking of right-wing corporate executives in the United States, but also works to send jobs overseas to the following outsourcing companies, who are some of the dozens of foreign corporations that pay member dues to the Chamber of Commerce’s 501c(6) account, which is used to fund its political ads:

– Infosys, Bangalore, India (at least $15,000 in annual member dues)
– KPIT Cummins, Pune, India ($7,500)
– Patni Americas, Mumbai, India ($15,000)
– NIIT Technologies, Delhi, India ($15,000)
– QuEST Global, Singapore ($7,500)
– Rolta, Mumbai, India ($7,500)
– SKP Crossborder Consulting, Mumbai, India ($7,500)
– Tata Group, Mumbai, India ($15,000)
- Wipro, Bangalore, India ($15,000)
“

Not surprisingly,  this US organization which says there is no “greater or more important” policy challenge “than creating the 20 million jobs needed in the next decade to replace the jobs lost in the current recession and to meet the needs of America’s growing workforce”  keeps its relationship with Indian IT-ITES hidden on its website.

If you go to the US Chamber of Commerce website and search for the names of companies like Infosys, it will draw a blank.

Outsourcing is a fact of life.  Even as Indian IT-ITES won big by providing quality and competitive cost to American and European companies,  the reality is that many of the same Indian firms have set up offices in Philippines, Eastern Europe and Latin America as their workers in India get more expensive. Perhaps one day IT-ITES firms from Philippines and Latin America will quietly join the Indian Chamber of Commerce to facilitate movement of jobs to their countries.