Trucks carrying Pepsi bottles were damaged in Gujarat recently. The multinational companies are reportedly receiving letters from some organisations asking them to decry the US sanctions.
These incidents in isolation may not have importance, but the trend is scaring a lot of MNCs operating in India. According to some of them, they have been perturbed by the stridency of some of the Sangh Parivar arms .
However, leaders of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM), say that there is nothing new in their anti-MNCs posture.
MNCs say that the business atmoshphere has been clouded by uncertainty after nuclear tests and confusing signals from various quarters have only compounded the problem. As a precautionary measure, a beverage company is contemplating bringing out brochures enlisting all the positive sides of the company.
Its investments in India, though executives in the company attempt to play it down by saying that "such moves are not related to a post-nuclear explosion India".
Confederation of India Industries (CII) is not so gung-ho about the "negligible impact" of the sanctions now. Reportedly, some CII members held meetings with some MNCs to discuss the possible fallouts of the sanctions on Tuesday.
Said a senior CII member, "American business houses have a lot of business interest in India and they will not let go off such interests. They are already lobbying hard against such sanctions." CII has held discussions with 70 business associates round the world on the fallout of sanctions trying to "explain India's point of view."
Trade sanctions have had their after-effects too.. Oracle Corp, which was to undertake a pilot study for MTNL under the technical development assistance scheme of the US government, will not conduct the study following blocking of $ 250,000 study grant because of the US sanctions.
Though Oracle India's chief, Shekhar Das Gupta, explained that his company's business activities have not got affected because of sanctions, this is not an isloated case of a fallout of the sanctions which have been imposed by the US and few other governments after the five nuclear tests.
MNC executives say that indirect effect of sanctions may lead to a slowdown in the economy. Even while agreeing that such Japanese and US sanctions may not effect private investments, there may be bearings on the economy.
A senior executive of Hyundai felt the over-riding concern is that the sanctions may lead to a further slow-down in Indian economy and may upset future investment plans. "There will, however, be no impact on current investments," the executive explained.
Since no assessment of sanctions have been done yet, MNCs are not sure about the exact fallouts. Several government projects are either financed by the US agencies or are provided technical assistance. Du Pont is believed to be sending a fact-finding delegation to india to assess the business climate in India.
