NALSAR UNIVERSITY OF LAW

POLITICAL SCIENCE

CORPORATE INFLUENCE ON POLITICS

SUBMITTED TO: MR. VAGEESHAN HARATHI

SUBMITTED BY : YASHASHREE MAHAJAN 2010-36 1ST YEAR BA.LLB(HONS.)

Contents
Contents................................................................................................................ 2 \ .................................................................................. 3 Politics has existed with the existence of society and so has business. It may have changed in its form, in its structure, in its organization but its existence has continued uninterrupted since time memorial and will continue to do so for the eras to come. Both this organs have always shared a bitter sweet bond, with both the parties aware of others existence and importance. .....................3 The relation existent right now is the one where corporations attempt and many times take a substantial amount of power in their hand by different means of influence. The key questions that arise over here is, how do these corporations influence control?, if they do what is the result of this control? Is this influence always bad? And also is this influence only uni-directional, doesnt politics at time also play an important role in a way the policies of a certain corporation are shaped. This and many more questions come to your mind when we talk about corporations and the influence they have on politics. These questions have been addressed in the following project and an conclusion has been reached............................................................................. 3 1.1 Research Methodology................................................................................. 3 1.2 Research Plan............................................................................................... 4 4.2. Direct Lobbying......................................................................................... 10 S.R.Baru, The Growing Influence of Business and Media on Indian Foreign Policy,2005.................................................................................................. 11 4.3. Captured regulatory agency......................................................................11 4.4.Advisory Committee to the Government....................................................12 Chapter 5: Why does corporate Influence Politics................................................14 Chapter 6: Effects of corporate influence on policy and people...........................16 Chapter 7: Conclusion.......................................................................................... 18 Bibliography......................................................................................................... 20

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Politics has existed with the existence of society and so has business. It may have changed in its form, in its structure, in its organization but its existence has continued uninterrupted since time memorial and will continue to do so for the eras to come. Both this organs have always shared a bitter sweet bond, with both the parties aware of others existence and importance. The relation existent right now is the one where corporations attempt and many times take a substantial amount of power in their hand by different means of influence. The key questions that arise over here is, how do these corporations influence control?, if they do what is the result of this control? Is this influence always bad? And also is this influence only uni-directional, doesnt politics at time also play an important role in a way the policies of a certain corporation are shaped. This and many more questions come to your mind when we talk about corporations and the influence they have on politics. These questions have been addressed in the following project and an conclusion has been reached.

1.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The researcher has adopted the doctrinal form of research in completing this project. As the project is an analysis of the corporate influence on politics, the doctrinal form of

research was most appropriate. The research is primarily web-based relying on articles by eminent authors on the issue, statistics from Governmental organizations . 1.2 RESEARCH PLAN
1.2.1 Aims and Objectives

Through this project the researcher aims to provide the reader with a detailed overview of the influence corporations have on decision making process of the government. The researcher has carefully scrutinized the important concepts and given a brief study on the same.
1.2.2 Scope and Limitations

Within the scope of this project the researcher will discuss and analyze the main questions that arise, solutions and their implementation, which are important for a proper understanding of the problem at hand. Due to paucity of space and time to some extent, the researcher will be unable to include all the concepts and limit himself to analyzing and discussing only the important ones in the topic.
1.2.3 Chapterization

The researcher has divided his project into 7 main chapters. Firstly, it begins with a brief introduction to the topic. The second chapter looks at the influence of politics on business. The third chapter looks at the various techniques of influence adopted by the corporations. The fourth chapter tries to find the reasons for this influence. The fifth chapter deals with the effects this influence has on policy decisions and people as a whole. And in the chapter the researcher concludes the project by looking at the positive side of this influence and also suggesting various methods to reduce this influence

CHAPTER2: DEFINITIONS
2.1.WHAT IS CORPORATE? It is a separate legal entity having its own privileges, and liabilities distinct from those of its members1. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Despite not being natural persons, corporations are recognized by the law to have rights and responsibilities like actual people. Corporations can exercise human rights against real individuals and the state, and they may be responsible for human rights violations. ] Just as they are "born" into existence through its members obtaining a certificate of incorporation, they can "die" when they lose money into insolvency .2 A corporation is an institution that is granted a charter recognizing it as. Corporations can even be convicted of criminal offences, such as fraud and manslaughter. 2.2.WHAT IS POLITICS? The word politics is derived from the Greek word POLIS meaning the city. For the Greeks city means the state and subject that deals with the city state is designated as politics. According to the new development made in the field of political science the meaning of politics hinges upon the political activity carried on in human environment, in time and space, and thus product of economy, society , history and economics. 3Politics arises when there is an interaction between two human beings; it depends on various sociological factors like environment, culture, economics etc. In its negative connotation politics is used to define the power struggle between individuals for control over something from a household to a nation to the world. 2.3.RELATION BETWEEN POLITICS AND CORPORATES There has been an intermingling between politics and business since time memorial. This relation can be traced back to Indus Valley Civilization where the merchants or traders played an important role in determining the functioning of the society or to the Gupta period where there were special Trade Guilds which controlled the trade and had adjudicating powers in contracts that arose from such trade practices. At times these Guilds became so powerful that they started asking for more and more independent authority. The relation between politics
1 2 3

Need to explain itin more detail

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation Ibid p1 A.C.Kapoor, Principle of Political science, S Chand

,pg 8

and business has always been a dicey one with one trying to influence the other to further its cause. In a way they act as a system of checks and balances so that one of them doesnt become more powerful and in the end cause hardship to the people who are influenced by its activities. Over here we talk politics in terms of political parties, political representatives and ruling party. The relation between politics and business differs from country to country. In Europe, government and corporations have cozy shared-bed relationships built on the statist model of capitalism. European corporate leaders employ the state to plow the road for them in more ways the one, while legislatures pass few restrictions that business leaders have not privately assented to: The typical European CEO Views government as a patron. In the United States, by contrast, business leaders almost uniformly despise government, and relations with regulators are adversarial4. In India the relation is a symbiotic one where one is dependent on the other for gains for e.g. the government or ruling party depend on business class for funds to manage its affairs which in turn gives the corporate houses power to control the laws being passed which in turn increase their profits which in turn give them more money to support the government and the cycle continues. , the executive authority is the third wing of the triangle, who implement the law and wields a considerable power hence the corporate then try to influence them in changing the implementation hence creating a win-win situation for the government and the corporate.
Para Phrasing required

This dynamic relation in turn affects the common man who is affected most by the politics played by the above three. It is important to limit the activity of the business who feel they are invincible and have a free hand in doing whatever they feel like. A simple change in law that has to be passed in favour of corporations can result in a huge profit margin for the companies while at the same time lead to losses of crores to the people in direct or indirect ways.

CHAPTER 3: POLITICAL INFLUENCE ON CORPORATIONS

4

www.thefreelibrary.com/Kindred+Strangers %3A+The+Uneasy+Relationship+Between+Politics+and...-a018750219

The politics of the area at times play a very high influence on the decision making of the corporation situated in that area. A corporation many a time needs the green signal of the local authorities to carry out the project, getting permission from the top level is not enough. This is because of the fact that many a times the labour unions of the corporate are a wing of one of the local political parties therefore the political parties influence a way in which the labour laws of the company are implemented. These local parties or in some cases local wings of a party hold the corporation to ransom while furthering their demands. This was seen in 1970 Bombay mill strikes where the labour unions of the textile mills went on an strike demanding better wages and better working conditions, while this on face value seems to be an honest attempt by the workers to demand their rights what we dont see us the politics that played behind the entire incident. The strike started to gain more rights to the workers then turned in to a political tug of war, between the various political parties trying to gain mileage from the strike. The strike crippled the Mumbai textile industry for over a year, forcing it to shut down, many mills had to be shifted out of the city , rendering huge losses for the mill owners affecting the supply of textile, this all happened due to the fact that the strikers couldnt reach a consensus on demand. It was not only the corporations that were affected, but also the thousands of mill workers that lost out on their jobs and livelihood. This all happened due the vested interest of few for control of power5. Also the ideologies of the government present at that time affect a lot the parties are socialist or leftist in their ideologies dont like the idea that a few will handful ruling and controlling a large part of the economy. So when such parties come into power it becomes quarantine for all the corporations who are forced to go into isolation while having limited access to the larger trading world. Such governments believe that economic power should rest with state who look out for the larger welfare of its citizens than in the hands of a few who turn violate it for their own benefit so when the political authority rest with under such an ideology you see a number of autocratic reforms. There is an increase in tax rates, certain subsidies that are granted to the corporations are taken back. There is a stricter control over the trade policies which turn squeezes the corporations that they need to go under the governments umbrella for survival. This makes the trade policies very unilateral with no bargaining powers to the corporations. The whole economy runs on the directions of governing party without any check.
5

knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm

The situation is diametrically different for a party with if they are capitalist in their ideologies. Here the ruling power believes in lazzaie faire situation which implies no governmental regulation in economic activites carried out by the corporations. The corporate ends up having a free hand in their decision making, as the regulation are removed. The trade barriers are lowered, taxes reduced, more autonomy is granted to the corporations. The rich and the powerful are allowed to grow in strength without a proper check laid on them. This way we can see how the ideologies of the ruling government end up affecting the functioning of corporations The Singur controversy is one of the latest examples where a major project had to be shifted out of the state due to the agitation of the parties. The choice of Singur was made by the company among six sites offered by the state government. The project faced massive opposition from displaced farmers. The Tata Motors site was one of the most fertile one in the whole of the Singur, and the Singur block, in turn, is among the most highly fertile in West Bengal. Consequently, almost the entire local population depends on agriculture with approximately 15000 making their livelihood directly from it. With the number of direct jobs to be created no more than about 1,000, many of which are expected to go to outsiders, the local populace feel understandably threatened for their livelihood. Environmental degradation is also feared. The unwilling farmers were given political support by West Bengal's opposition leader Mamata Banerjee. Banerjee's "Save Farmland" movement was supported by celebrity environmental activists like Medha Patkar, Anuradha Talwar and Arundhuti Roy. Chief protesters include the opposition parties spearheaded by the Trinamool Congress under Mamata Banerjee and Socialist Unity Centre of India. The ruling government overtook the land under Land Acquisition Act of 1894. The law has provisions for state taking over privately held land for public purposes but not for developing private businesses. The illegality of the acquisition has been substantially conceded by the Kolkata High Court6.
Need to Paraphrase last two paragraphs Also need for better examples phrased better

CHAPTER 4: TECHNIQUES OF CORPORATE INFLUENCE ON POLITICS

4.1. FINANCIAL SUPPORT

6

www.amazines.com/Tata_Nano_Singur_controversy_related.html

Political process is a expensive one which requires a large amount of money. There is a huge need of money for political campaigning which cannot be raised by the party itself and requires some additional money which is provided by corporations. There are tight legal limits on the amount of money a candidate can spend during the election campaign. In most Lok Sabha constituencies the limit as recently amended in December, 1997 is Rs 15,00,000/-, although in some States the limit is Rs 6,00,000/- (for Vidhan Sabha elections the highest limit is Rs 6,00,000/-, the lowest Rs 3,00,000/-)7. Although supporters of a candidate can spend as much as they like to help out with a campaign, they have to get written permission of the candidate, and whilst parties are allowed to spend as much money on campaigns as they want, recent Supreme Court judgements have said that, unless a political party can specifically account for money spent during the campaign, it will consider any activities as being funded by the candidates and counting towards their election expenses. The accountability imposed on the candidates and parties has curtailed some of the most extravagant campaigning that was previously a part of Indian elections. To help the party get around these loopholes the corporate firms donate money and in turn influence the decision making
Needs reframing particularly because financial support hasnt been explained well

a) Political Action Committee A political action committee is a separate fund or organizations to which members of a group--such as a corporation, labour union, or trade association--can donate money. These funds, in turn, are used to contribute to political campaigns in the name of the group8. b) Soft Money Party collect money for party building and voters registration drive, without actually supporting and campaign for a particular candidate, this money has no restriction. The party can collect such money and it can use it to advertise for the party as a whole and not focus on any particular candidate.9 c) Independent expenditures

7 8 9

www.indian-elections.com/.../politicalpartiesandelections.html www.polisci.ccsu.edu/trieb/InfluGov.html www.polisci.ccsu.edu/trieb/InfluGov.html

Another important way to get around the law is mechanism called independent expenditures. An independent expenditure is made by an individual or organization that is not connected with a candidate's campaign, but favours that particular candidate. Like the party may campaign against the opposition candidate, or an individual can place an report showing the candidate in positive light, you cant control published as controlling it would be violating the right to freedom of speech. This way the corporations using the above mentioned methods or various other underhand methods end up contributing huge amount of money for political activities especially during election time and hence end up wielding considerable influence among the political scenario of the time.10 4.2. DIRECT LOBBYING The Indian economy, by and large, functions around the governments discretionary powers. Whenever government changes, the wielders of these discretionary powers also change making things worse for the lobbyist. Lobbying goes on all the time, mainly because the state retains so much discretionary power. Direct lobbying involves meeting with representatives, senators, or their staffs--or with members of the executive branch, and trying to inform them of your point of view and hopefully getting them to act in a way you would like11. A successful lobbyist needs to know how to make representations to government, what tools and techniques can be effectively used to communicate with MPs, MLAs, ministers, etc. These are both the obvious and arcane bits of knowledge that empower lobbyist to understand better the working of the government. There are basically three functions served by a lobbyist: 1. To inform the government about the industry or cause for which you are lobbying and of the stance those for whom you are lobbying are taking; 2. To inform those who hire you of potential government actions which are likely to affect them. These may include pending legislation, pending regulations, and upcoming hearings which are to be heard on topics of interest to those for whom you work;

10 11

Ibid Ibid

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3. To try to convince the legislator, staff member, or administrator to make decisions favorable to your employer's industry or point of view.12

In the case of representatives and legislators this usually means getting a bill passed or amended, or getting a bill killed so it does not become a law. Corporations have a better way of influencing government as that with their financial support have a better chance of approaching the government. It is done through professional lobbyist or previous senators who have retired.
Decent but needs to be re organised in a little coherent manner

Lobbying in India is at a nascent stage. Until recently, it was rated equivalent to influencing government policy with money. With increased transparency in governance, corporate entities realised that a more legitimate method is needed to influence policymakers. 4.3. CAPTURED REGULATORY AGENCY Regulatory agencies are specialized bodies which work closely with the corporate. After a certain time these authorities start taking decisions benefiting the corporate, with the industry they regulate. So, after a while they think very much like that industry. It is not that anyone does anything corrupt per se; it is just a natural human behaviour you get to know these people and you want to protect them.

Triangle of influence
The regulatory agencies are always the targets of corporate influence. In each area of policy, a triangular relationship exists. The players are the lobbyists and corporations and other private organizations in that area, the congressional committees and subcommittees who make decisions about that subject area, and the executive agencies and regulatory commissions that operate in that field. The connections between these players are as follows: Corporations for whom the lobbyists work give campaign contributions to members of the congressional committees that make decisions about that field. These committees and subcommittees in turn determine the jurisdictions, and sometimes the budgets, of the executive agencies and regulatory commissions that work in the field. Finally, the executive agencies give out government contracts, which can be very lucrative to the industry; while
12

S.R.Baru, The Growing Influence of Business and Media on Indian Foreign Policy,2005

11

the regulatory commissions adopt regulations, which can be beneficial or restrictive to the industry at hand. If everyone in the triangle cooperates, as they usually do, everyone benefits--that is, everyone except the general public13.

These triangles are called Iron Triangles . These symbiotic relationships, which exist in every policy area, are also known as sub governments.

4.4.ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO THE GOVERNMENT . The fact is that the government does not have fact gathering apparati in a number of fields. And so, government agencies appoint committees to provide information and advice, these committees contain people from the field or heads of corporations as advisors. , if the information that government agencies are getting is from the industry involved, then the perspective from which they get the information is likely to be one-sided. The government rarely asks for a third party who is not related to the concerned field but may be affected by the working of the committee for their views in the matter as it is considered to be unimportant This gives them a perspective that is one sided and creates an unfair advantage

13

www.polisci.ccsu.edu/trieb/InfluGov.html

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for the corporations. The presence of industrialists on parliamentary committees and their decisions could influence their businesses. Even a cursory look at the members list of important committees, including the standing committees on finance and industry, the public accounts committee and the public undertakings committee, reveals a startling number of industrialists. Take the standing committee on finance. Its members include industrialist and venture capitalist Rajeev Chandrasekhar from Bangalore; Andhra Pradesh chief minister- hopeful and the states leading business magnate Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy; pharmaceutical baron Mahendra Prasad, who is popularly referred to in Bihar as King Mahendra; Maharashtrabased industrialist and media baron Vijay Jawaharlal Darda14. Basudeb Acharia, who heads the agriculture standing committee and is also the CPMs floor leader in the Lok Sabha, said the guidelines already state that members having conflict of interest with the issue being discussed must leave the discussion, but this is not strictly enforced. Obviously there will be conflict of interest if committee members are also dealing with the industry sector under consideration, he said15. 4.5.COURT ACTION In this method, the company . The fact is that corporations can pay a lot more for legal work than the government. Many times corporate lawyers don not aim at winning a case, but simply at delaying government action. This buys them enough time to go forward with their plans and once there motive is fulfilled they withdraw their case. Or if they are being sued they pay the fine and get out of the litigation. Let's say a corporation has an advertisement on television that information and broadcasting ministry feels is misleading to the general public. The IB ministry may issue a ruling for the corporation to withdraw that advertisement from the air. The corporation then gets its lawyers to seek a temporary injunction against that ruling until a hearing on the ruling can be held. In the meantime, the advertisement remains on television. Then, the corporation's lawyers use various legal tactics to keep delaying the date of the hearing. There are lots of ways lawyers can do this. Let's say the hearing finally comes up a year later. Before the hearing actually
14
15

Sowmya Aji, India Inc. MPs in Ethics Tangle, mail today,24/9/09

Ibid

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begins, the corporate lawyers announce that they are going to withdraw their objections and that the corporation will follow the IBS ruling and withdraw the ad. They know they don't have a leg to stand on in court. Has the corporation lost? No. While all this has been going on, the advertisement has been on television for a whole extra year. So even though the corporation is eventually going to lose the case, it winds up winning by delaying things. Delays can be helpful to the corporations in other areas as well. Let's say there has been an accident in the company's plant and the corporation has control of its workers' compensation payments for the accident. The corporation's lawyers may keep delaying the payment of these compensation benefits. What you may have in this case is working class families that can't afford these delays. They have to live with large medical expenses, and they have a hard time keeping things together. The corporation then offers them a much lower settlement. And because they need the money so desperately, the families are willing to take something now, rather than wait for the larger payment to which they are entitled16.

CHAPTER 5: WHY DOES CORPORATE INFLUENCE POLITICS

The key to business success in India lies often less in real entrepreneurship than in capturing the major functionaries of state. Nothing guarantees you higher profits better than favourable official treatment, which allows you to corner resources, grab licences or establish monopolies. Thats why Indian businessmen invest so much in influencing policies and policy-makers, in creating lobbying institutions such as FICCI, Confederation of Indian
16

http://www.polisci.ccsu.edu/trieb/InfluGov.html

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Industry and Assochem, and in building personal relationships with and patronising political leaders17. One of the major benefits a corporation achieves by manoeuvre the policy making is nondecision or miniscule changes in the policy which to a naked untrained eye seem trivial but end up creating colossal amounts of profit for the corporations. Many a times corporations may not want certain laws to be passed or a new regulation to be enforced, they use their influence to make sure that the bill proposing the changes die a natural death. They ensure that the certain law or a provision is not discussed, or if it is no concrete action is taken on it. This way the law and its purpose slowly fade out of public and there is a win -win situation for both the corporations and the government, who are also saved from the public wrath. Even if they cant stop a bill or amendment, corporations use their influence to get minor changes done in the proposed bill or amendment which wont be noticeable on face value but will lead to huge amounts of profit in the long run. On key issues representatives are likely to vote in the public interest as they conceive of it; but on these small points, they may vote with the special economic interests that support their campaigns. They give one industry a tax break here, and another industry a tax break there. It doesn't seem to hurt anyone, and besides it's buried in the details--so no one notices. However, these little tax breaks add up to a great deal of money the government does not have which it could use for programs that serve the people18. One of the other ways in which the influence comes handy is when the time comes for awarding tenders to the corporation for specific contracts. On the face value the process seems to be very fair with interested companies applying and the company with the lowest quotation and the desired assets winning the tender but many things can swing the tender in the favour of company in an direct or an indirect manner. it can be in form the tender details being leaked out prematurely, or other companies with competitive prices being rejected due to technical issues, anything can be managed if you have the right contacts within the ministry awarding the tender.

17 18

P.Sainath,Drought of Justice,flood of funds,Hindu,15/8/2008 http://www.polisci.ccsu.edu/trieb/InfluGov.html

15

Due the above and many other reasons corporations dont mind spending an extra bucks or putting a little extra effort in buttering up the policy makers if it is going to provide fruitful and green results in the long run.

CHAPTER 6: EFFECTS OF CORPORATE INFLUENCE ON POLICY AND PEOPLE

COrporate with its power plays an important role in the policy considerations. As we see from above that there are a no of ways in which corporate have their hand deeply sunk in decision making, let it be through lobbying, financial support or their agents in the government. All 16

such influence at times proves to be detrimental for the society at large. When they influence the policies the policies get converted in the favour of the corporate. This can be seen in an example from the states. An example of this is the bipartisan support of NAFTA(North American Free Trade Association). NAFTA has been devastating to workers and has lessened environmental protections. It has been responsible for the loss of hundreds of thousand high paying manufacturing jobs. Also, it has suppressed real wages, weakened workers collective bargaining power, and reduced fringe benefits. Although NAFTA has been a boon to the American worker, it has been a blessing for corporations and Wall Street. It has enabled corporations to save money on labour cost and avoid costly environmental protections. NAFTA has caused an increase of money for investors (Scott)19. We elect are representatives to protect us and when they turn puppets into the hands of money feeding corporate, they end up increasing our vulnerability to damage, There are instances where corporations are involved in human-right violations, coercion of the workforce, violating labor laws, inhuman working conditions to regime changes, supporting brutal regimes, controlling corrupt governments, enacting favourable laws, to polluting rivers, dumping industrial waste, endangering the ecosystem, exposing populations to dangerous chemicals, to collusion, anti-competitive practices, tax-avoidance, and other corrupt practices20. This was seen in the nestle baby food scandal where the company heavily advertised the use of its baby food mix as a better substitute for mothers milk, when in reality such claim had no scientific backing. This campaign continued for a long time till the international organisations and the governments woke up from their feigned slumber to take some actions. What is surprising that the government itself advertised this mixture as a important food component for the infant, without bothering to validate the results obtained by the company by their own series of test. Even through the policies of the government the money always seems to be their for the big corporations who had influence to turn them there way. It doesnt matter that hundreds of people are cying of hunger due to misallocation of funds for example take a look at the budget and the Revenues foregone under the central tax system. The estimate of revenues foregone from corporate revenues in 2008-09 is Rs. 68,914 crore.21 By contrast, the NREGS
19 20 21

http://whatreallyhappened.com/blogs/dean/10/04/04/corporate-influence-government http://ajmalla.blogspot.com/2010/03/corporations-their-influence-and.html http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2009-10/statrevfor/annex12.pdf

17

covering tens of millions of impoverished human beings gets Rs. 39,100 crore in the 2009-10 budget. Only one thing can be seen in such a situation that the more influence you have in the government the more money you end up wringing, it does not matter whether such allocation of resources makes sense or whether it really proves beneficiary to the masses. This and many more examples time and again prove to us how excessive influence of corporations can prove detrimental to the overall functioning of the governmental machinery with the balance tipping unjustly to the side of the powerful.

CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION While undue influence of corporations does has its ill-effect on governmental policies, at many time such an influence might prove to be a healthy check on the powers of government, leading to an overall robust growth for the economy. History is the witness to the fact that country with high level of industrialisation is a country which has achieved high levels of growth. And this high level of industrialisation was possible in most countries barring a few

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communist countries, due the influence the corporate could exert on the existing governments to provide some leeway for them. This is mainly due to the fact that corporate and politics have different approach when it comes to decision making. Corporate for policy decisions always have had a futuristic approach, they are more open to embrace newer technological and economical changes , while, politics by nature has to depend on popular vote , which is more status quo-ist in its approach, may not respond well to newer technological changes, due to the fear that it may lose popular support. Such a stagnant economy will prove detrimental for the growth of the country. Outdates technology and trade policies will lead to improper allocation or overconsumption of resource which will in turn lead to a nation full of unsatisfied citizens.. To counter this it is important that corporate have a healthy influence on politics so that it drives the policy makers to take some decision which are not for the masses but actually help industrialisation of a country. Leading to a healthy and thriving economy. But at the same time it is important that this influence doesnt exert a certain limit as in where the governmental machinery becomes a mere puppet in the hands of the government, which may then lead to situations as discussed in chapter 6. This can be done primarily by increasing peoples participation in politics. When the government is aware of the fact that people are keeping a hawk eyed view on all its activities, then it is less likely to decisions which are biased in its nature atleast openly. Also lobbying as an activity should be legalised and more and more professionals should enter it or should be encouraged to enter into it. It is a well known fact that legalising something makes it easier to control and more accountable. Also so that lobbying doesnt remain in its crude version with influence being equivalent to money, but a more organised structure with other methods of influence by actually meeting the legislators and convincing them about the side of your client, building and maintain contacts and relationships. While influence of corporations is not always bad, atleast in the present scenario, it should be kept minimum so that maximum benefit can be derived from its limited presence , while not affecting the public friendly policies of the governments

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
1) ARTICLES REFERRED 1) P.Sainath, The Winter of our Austerity, The Hindu,8/10/2009

2) Sowmya AJi, India Inc MPs in Ethical Triangle, MAil Today,24/9/09 3) Mukul Sharma, Companies Bill & Social Accountability, The Hindu,3/10/09 20

4) S.R.Baru, The Growing Influence of Business and Media on Indian

Foreign Policy,2005
5) P.Sainath, Drought of Justice Flood of Funds, The Hindu,15/8/2009 6) Praful Bidwai, When Corporations Capture the State,Rediff.com,7/8/2009

2) WEBSITES REFERRED 1) http://www.sacw.net/article1160.html

2) www.jstor.org 3) http://www.actionaid.org.uk/doc_lib/174_6_under_the_influence_final.pdf 4) http://www.india-seminar.com/2001/502.htm 5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate 6) http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_n10_v28/ai_18750219/ 7) http://www.chillibreeze.com/articles_various/Indian-Politics.asp 8) http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2009-10/statrevfor/annex12.pdf 9) http://www.polisci.ccsu.edu/trieb/InfluGov.html 10) www.amazines.com/Tata_Nano_Singur_controversy_related.html 11)

www.indian-elections.com/.../politicalpartiesandelections.html

3) BOOKS REFERRED 1)A.C.Kapoor, Principles of Political Science, S. Chand, New Delhi,2009

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