India is Stepping up the Heat on Congress

Date: Monday, November 17, 2003 7:16 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

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India plans to start a new offensive to promote looser rules for
offshoring and to increase the number of workers they can send to the
United States. They are doing it the good old fashioned way, with
massive lobbying and PR campaigns. With scant organized opposition we
can expect India's new offensive to be fruitful for everyone except
American workers.

There is so much bad news in these articles that I decided to discuss
the worst of them:

* Nasscom asks for Help from ITAA - We have often suspected that
India's NASSCOM has worked with Harris Miller's ITAA, but this cements
their relationship. These two powerhouses have proven that they are
very good at pushing the right buttons to influence Congress. If they
are forming an alliance it will be a difficult combination for labor
groups to counter.

* Nasscom, representing 850 Indian companies, has hired Hills &
Knowlton. Hills and Knowlton is a very successful lie-for-hire PR
company, and NASSCOM ponied up $100,000 to pay them for the first six
months of next year. Hills and Knowlton isn't cheap so you can bet that
more money will paid as the propaganda starts hitting the media, and
the politicians are wined and dined.

* Nasscom's president, Kiran Karnik claims he has met with more than 50
members of Congress and government officials. You can bet he wasn't
talking about Mahatma Ghandi!

* Washington-based law firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld has been
paid $600,000 annually "to advise India and work the halls of the
Congress". In other words, they will spend whatever it takes to buy our
Congress. If history is any guide, expect our Congress to sell out
cheaply on these trade issues.

* India is working with the World Trade Organization to create a new
visa that will have no fixed expiration. This is some scary
information, because if India has their way the visa will have no
limits on the numbers of aliens that can take jobs in the U.S. and no
protections for American workers. India has been floating this idea for
awhile and they are getting a receptive ear at the WTO. Indian industry
groups have previously said they will promote this idea at the FTAA
talks in Florida.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?artid=286436

The Economic Times Online
Printed from economictimes.indiatimes.com >News By Industry >Infotech
>Software

Nasscom to seek US IT association's help

PTI[ SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2003 07:20:17 PM ]

Click for more >>

KOLKATA: Concerned about the possible impact of visa restrictions by
the US government for Indian professionals, Nasscom on Sunday said it
would seek help of the Information Technology Association of America in
this regard and try to sensitise the US about its adverse effect on
Indo-US business and the US companies.

"The cap (on granting of H1-B visa to Indians going for employment in
US) would act as a dampener, leading to disruption in Indo-US business.
In the short term it will disrupt flow of business and the US companies
will also be affected," Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said. (Will the
US lose out in the long run because of the visa restrictions?)

While the impact of the visa restrictions for Indian professionals was
yet to become apparent, "it will definitely be felt by April next, if
not amended", he said.

Asked what steps Nasscom would take to neutralise the protectionist
measure, Karnik said, "We are taking help of the ITAA. We will try to
make the US understand that it will also affect their companies."

The reduction in the sealing of the annual quota for H1B visa to Indian
professionals from 1.95 lakh to 65,000 was very low given that
the US economy was picking up and more people were expected to look for
opportunities there, he said.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=282052

The Economic Times Online
Printed from economictimes.indiatimes.com >News By Industry >Infotech
>ITeS

Indians in US lobby against BPO backlash

PTI[ THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2003 11:37:02 PM ]

WASHINGTON: A coalition of Indian government officials, business groups
and influential Indian Americans has quietly launched an extensive
lobbying campaign here to counter allegations that the country was
taking an unfair number of high-end US jobs, a media report said on
Thursday.

India is paying several high-priced Washington lobbying and law firms
to craft a campaign extolling the benefits to the US of closer economic
ties with India, the Wall Street Journal reported. (Do you think that
lobbying by Indians is the best way to counter the BPO backlash in the
West?)

Washington-based law firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld will
collect $600,000 annually "to advise India and work the halls of the
Congress", according to Justice Department records. Former House
Speaker Tom Foley, former diplomats and lawmakers at the firm will run
the campaign. The Indian Embassy also has an annual $240,000 tie-up
with well-known international advisor Edwardvon Kloberg, who represents
several eastern European companies, the report said.

India's National Association of Software and Service Companies
(Nasscom), representing 850 international companies, has hired Hill &
Knowlton, an influential public relations and lobbying firm. Nasscom
paid the company $100,000 for the first six months of this year.

"India really feels a need to get their story out. They are frustrated
by being bashed for their success in developing an educated work force
that can compete worldwide," Michael Clark, executive director of the
US-India Business Council, said.

So far, the Indian alliance, working with Hill & Knowlton and a few
local Indian American lawmakers, has succeeded in temporarily blocking
passage of anti-outsourcing bills in New Jersey and Maryland, the
report said.

Battle plans are being drawn for what are expected to be far tougher
fights next year in those states as well as in Michigan, North Carolina
and others considering legislation that would outlaw the use of
overseas workers to do state contract work, it said.

The alliance is having less luck so far in Congress. Labour and white
collar activists recently persuaded lawmakers not to renew a measure
that had tripled the number of H-1B work visas issued to foreign
professionals to 195,000 annually from the original 65,000. India gets
a majority of those visas issued for high-tech jobs.

The Washington Alliance of Technology Workers has been pushing States
to pass legislation that would block government contract work from
being performed overseas. It is also pressing Congress to put new
limits on guest visas granted to high-tech workers.

Members of the Indian coalition complain that they did not get support
they needed from US companies that benefit from the expanded visa
programme.

So far, Nasscom officials are doing most of the face-to-face work on
Capitol Hill. Since the beginning of the year, president of Nasscom
Kiran Karnik said, he and his colleagues have met with more than 50
members of Congress and government officials.

The Indian coalition is laying the groundwork through the World Trade
Organisation to create a new guest professional-services visa that will
have no fixed expiration, Karnik added.

To bolster India's lobbying muscle, coalition members say they are
urging Indian Americans - many of whom are well-paid technical workers
and professionals - to get more involved politically.

Of the nearly two million Indian Americans, 20 per cent are
millionaires, according to a Merrill Lynch & Co. study. They currently
have few active political-action committees or Washington advocacy
groups, but individuals are generous contributors to election
campaigns, according to some political and cultural leaders in the
community.

The community's generosity, says the paper, is one reason membership in
the House's India Caucus has swelled to 175 members, a 40 per cent
increase from last year. But an aide to Caucus co-chairman Joe Wilson,
a South Carolina Republican, said Indian Americans don't press Caucus
members to vote a certain way on issues.

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