Allocating money to buy friends in the US

While Walmart is under a lens for spending on lobbying here, our IT firms have been continuously doing so there

The entry of Walmart and the lobbying it had done to enter India has become a point of debate but the technology sector, including those in information technology services, have been doing it for decades in America.

Search giant Google topped the list of technology companies in spending on lobbying and Facebook was the eighth. Nasscom, the Indian IT services industry body, is also on the list, though what it spent in 2012 had slightly dropped.

According to data made available by OpenSecrets.org, a website tracking the influence of money in US politics, Nasscom (National association of software and services companies) spent $305,000 (Rs 1.7 crore) in the year till October 30. In 2011, it had shelled out $375,000 (Rs 2.06 crore) on lobbying.

When asked, Nasscom said there was no change in their budget for such activities in 2012. "We have not made any budget cuts this year for lobbying. However, due to the legislative logjam in the US, no major bill related to our issues was likely to be passed this year. So, there is less action on the legislative front,” said Vice-President Ameet Nivsarkar.

Nasscom paid its two lobbyists, BGR and the Lande Group, for lobbying on issues such as “immigration, visa guidelines and bilateral treaties”, he added.

Spending on lobbying by individual IT companies saw a downward trend in 2012. Wipro and Nasdaq-listed companies such as Cognizant and CSC reduced their expenses this year. Cognizant in 2012 had spent $830,000 in 2012 to lobby on issues such as immigration, education and taxes, whereas in the previous year it had spent $1,340,000. An emailed questionnaire to Cognizant and CSC remained unanswered.(LOBBYING GAME)

According to Ganesh Natarajan, chief executive of Zensar Technologies, “The lobbying activities increase when certain Bills related to outsourcing or immigrant laws or visa issues are tabled. However, 2012 saw budget cuts, so some companies were reducing their expense on lobbying.”

Most Indian companies do not hire individual agents for such activities.

Nasscom usually carries these out. Most multinational corporations such as Cognizant, Accenture, Microsoft, and Google have their own lobbyist in the US.

Bangalore-based Wipro, which has its own lobbying team, saw its spending going down. It had spent $150,000 in 2012 (figures till October), lobbying on issues such as immigration and trade in the US. In 2011, Wipro had spent $199,855 on such activities. An e-mail to Wipro did not elicit any response.

According to the data available on OpenSecrets.org, it is not only Indian tech companies which reduced their spending on lobbying.

IBM Corp had spent $3,560,000 in 2012, as against $4,850,000 in 2011. Packaged software giant Microsoft’s spending has also come down to $5,656,000 in 2012 from $7,335,000 in 2011.

Data from the Center for Responsive Politics shows in 2012 (October 31), the computer and Internet industry had spent $96,419,868 as against $126,871,432 in 2011.The lobbying expenditures were taken from the Senate Office of Public Records.

“When I was the chairman of Nasscom, I went to the US and met Senators and informed them about the Indian IT sector. The idea behind lobbying is to clear any misunderstanding or misconception that the policy makers may have about the outsourcing industry. Such efforts have helped in the past,” Natarajan added.