Feb

27

Ethics alert for India Inc.

February 27, 2009 posted by indiatime |

There is growing concern in India about President Obama’s singling out the American corporations that currently outsource to India. That decision has more to do with the current economic crisis and less to do with the havoc wreaked by Indian companies like Satyam. Still, the list of Indian companies showing up on the malpractice radar seems to be growing every month, threatening to malign India’s hard-earned stature as a reliable trade partner.

Early last month, Satyam Computers, one of the biggest names in India’s IT outsourcing world, became synonymous with fraud and falsification when its CEO confessed to cheating on company’s books.

Earlier this month, several Indian-origin owners of American companies were arrested for H-1B visa fraud. The arrests marked but a drop in the bucket in the H-1B visa malpractice routinely being carried out mostly by Indian consulting companies, ranging from falsifying documents to disrespecting labor laws.

In the area of Pharmaceutical outsourcing, Ranbaxy laboratories, the largest Indian drug manufacturer was recently found to have faked lab tests and data to seek approvals for its drugs. This week, the US Food & Drug Administration decided to end drug evaluations at Ranbaxy’s India plant, citing significant questions about the reliability of data.

Another pharmaceutical company called AM2PAT, this one based in North Carolina but owned by one Dushyant Patel, an Indian-American, is also in the news for selling lifesaving medicines mixed with sediment and debris. AM2PAT’s product quality was so screwed up that people had noticed food particles, among other things, in its heparin syringes. It has been revealed that this Indian American company’s chief microbiologist was a teenager who had dropped out of high school. AM2PAT president Dushyant Patel is absconding and has apparently fled to India.

Indian companies will not be booted out as many have feared, watching President Obama speak to the congress the other day. But Indians will need to be ready for thorough scrutiny, detailed diligence and tougher times ahead, thanks to the crooked corporations that have maligned the majority of Indian companies aspiring to expand their horizons. I think it may be comparatively easier to recover from IT and accounting malpractices, but areas such as pharmaceuticals would need to be very, very careful since any fatal negligence in that area can spell prolonged or even permanent doom for the rest of Indian companies in that field.


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1 Comment so far

  1. Steve on March 1, 2009 10:04 am

    Obama was the man all you foreigners wanted to win.

    Well you got your wish.

    So, you can’t complain about him!

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