JOIN USDismissing with disdain President Barack Obama’s Bangalore-Buffalo quip on Tuesday, Nasscom — National Association of Software & Service Companies, on Wednesday said, the remark has been needlessly misintepreted.
“It has nothing to do with ‘outsourcing’ or ‘offshoring’ or either with India,” Nasscom President Som Mittal said. “It is not an issue of India but how the US companies out there and US subsidiaries are structured and the taxation followed by US over the years,” he added. Briefing reporters, Mittal clarified that if at all the issue impacts India, we (at Nasscom) will do the needful.” The industry, he said, could also focus on non-US markets which also contribute to revenues.
Chairman Pramod Bhasin, endorsing Mittal’s observations that “it has nothing to do with outsourcing,” in a humourous vein, retorted “I think he (President Obama) got his geography wrong.” The manufacturing jobs, Bhasin said, were going to Beijing. “It is a purely a (US) domestic tax issue,” he added. Bhasin said, it impacts Shanghai more than Bangalore. “This is about foreign direct investment. It is purely a domestic taxation bill which they are changing. It will not harm us. It’s just unfortunate that he (Obama) chose to name Bangalore, when in reality, he should have taken Shanghai’s name,” Bhasin added.
Pointing out that at a time when the global economy was showing signs of revival, former Nasscom Chairman Kiran Karnik said “sending a protectionism signal would be negative” and that such a move would only result in the US itself being the hardest hit.
Observing that G-20 has lobbied against protectionism is bad as the world has gone far and got more globalised. Protectionism is responded by protectionism, Mittal said adding that “there is always a rhetoric on protectionism. However, most bills get diulted in the end.” For, according to Mittal economies across the world, including the US, gain a lot from reaching out to markets,