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BANGALORE, INDIA, August 8, 2002: When the State Department issued a travel advisory on May 31 warning Americans to leave India because the war prospects had risen to “serious levels,” global firms like Nortel Networks, Reebok, Sony, American Express, HSBC and GE Capital, who had moved their back rooms to Bangalore went nuts, according to this opinion column in the New York Times by Thomas L. Friedman. “That day,” said Vivek Paul, vice chairman of Wipro, “I had a C.I.O. [chief information officer] from one of our big American clients send me an e-mail saying: ‘I am now spending a lot of time looking for alternative sources to India. I don’t think you want me doing that, and I don’t want to be doing it.’ I immediately forwarded his letter to the Indian ambassador in Washington and told him to get it to the right person.” For many global companies, “the main heart of their business is now supported here,” said N. Krishnakumar, president of MindTree. “It can cause chaos if there is a disruption.” While not trying to meddle in foreign affairs, he added, “what we explained to our government, through the Confederation of Indian Industry, is that providing a stable, predictable operating environment is now the key to India’s development.” This was a real education for India’s leaders in New Delhi, but, officials conceded, they got the message: loose talk about war or nukes could be disastrous for India. This was reinforced by another new lobby: the information technology ministers who now exist in every Indian state to drum up business. Friedman’s column concludes: “In the meantime, this cease-fire is brought to you by G.E. — and all its friends here in Bangalore.”

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