India, a headache for US IT firms

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Washington:The influential American IT and telecom industry on Wednesday sought intervention of the Obama Administration against what they alleged are “discriminatory” Indian policies, which they claimed has resulted in several hundred millions of dollars of losses in the last quarter.“In discussions with our member companies, we have quantified the potential Q4 losses at several hundred million dollars, with billions of dollars of lost exports and sales at risk in 2014 if these requirements remain in place. If left in place, these policies could shut out US technology companies from a critical emerging market,” information technology industry council said in a letter to Obama Administration.The letter dated September 24 against India’s “compulsory registration order” which goes into effect on October 3, has been jointly written to the US commerce secretary, Penny S. Pritzker; the US trade representatives, Mike Froman, and the Caroline Atkinson, the deputy national security advisor to the United States President for international economic affairs.Under the new “compulsory registration order” issued last year by the department of electronics and information technology, the ITIC alleged that the new equipment cannot be imported into or sold in India after April 3, 2013, which now has been extended to October 3, unless it is tested and registered with Bureau of Indian Standards-approved testing labs in India.