India CSR News Network
NEW DELHI : ASSOCHAM has strongly impressed upon the government that the only way to get rid of so-called corporate espionage in the labyrinth of state machinery is to introduce complete transparency and demolish the four walls of secrecy around the process of ‘decision-making’.
In any case “one fails to understand what all this fuss is about? After all, any Indian citizen can rightfully access any government information or even document through a legal way by the Right to Information Act. The piles of documents which are being hyped up as the corporate espionage can be sought from any government department using RTI, with the exception of the national security matters ” ASSOCHAM Secretary General Mr D S Rawat said. He said in any case why should the government decision-making concerning policies which have a bearing on the corporates be shrouded in secrecy. Let all the policies be first put up on the web sites as drafts and let all the conflicting interests debate, deliberate and slug it out by their legitimate arguments right in the public view.
“There will always be conflicting views between two competing corporates. Both the views have to be respected, debated before a decision is taken. Even after a decision is taken, the public and the businesses have a right to be told as to why a particular line of decision was taken and the other rejected. The Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi’s passionate slogan of Minimum Government and Maximum Governance should be implemented in a letter and spirit”
The ASSOCHAM said “We are not living in the periods of cold wars and different blocs of the Sixties and Seventies…..India is on way to becoming a global economic power. Each of the Indian and multinational companies should be within its rights to operate with full freedom. They also should have a right to engage in lobbying groups to advance their line of arguments and convince the decision making authorities that they have merit. Lobbying should no more be considered as a dirty word”
Besides, the Police should also refrain from painting the entire corporate world with the brush of espionage. “If we have to take the country forward and win global investors, this kind of so-called espionage stories will not do us good. What we need is strong regulators, open decision making. Even the Budget making should also be done in a transparent manner and this practice of changing and altering tax slabs, rates every year should be stopped. There should be long term policies with clear vision with the fair and transparent rules of the game”
