"I thought only Indian companies do this kind of accounting manipulation.How can such a respectable company indulge in such an activity?" That was the shocked response of a friend of mine, a scientist at a government research organization in the country. The company concerned was one of the first big names whose accounting malpractices had become public, a few months ago.

I felt really sad. Not because his faith had been shattered. But because of his misplaced trust on these companies. Some of the frauds and scams in India that our media keeps writing all the time, can look like a teddy bear’s picnic, to use the Americans’ own phrase, compared to the wrongs that some of the globally ‘admired’ and ‘respected’ companies commit everyday, against their own investors.

"The holier-than-thou attitude is no longer going to work. The spate of accounting scams have exposed the double standards of MNCs" Shyamanuja Das

And till the time that their crime is exposed, these ‘respected’ global companies give us sermons on what is right and what is wrong, why Indian companies are all into manipulation for short-term profits and why we at the media should not even be comparing the Indian company ABC or XYZ with them and so on. And they make us feel as if we were a nation of crooks!

Yet, when it comes to transparency—the lack of which is the root cause of all that we are witnessing today—these western multinationals are the worst.

During Networking Masters and V&D 100, our two annual issues, every year, we face the same problem. Many companies do not share very basic information like total sales. Sixty percent of our time goes in calling and following after them, and we get little time to do other research that would give a lot more value to the readers—to themselves and their customers.

Do all Indian companies share information? No.

Then why am I writing only about multinationals? Because a few Indian companies that do not share information are held in high esteem. All better companies do share information. These multinationals, on the other hand, want to boast how admired and respected they are and take refuge under what they call the company’s global policy of not sharing information at the country level. It is this so-called global policy that I am questioning. It is this holier-than-thou attitude that I am questioning. It is this double standard that I am questioning.

What is your company policy? Hiding your performance from your existing and potential customers in this country? How can a company which sells in a country not be transparent about its performance and yet boast that it is a good company?

These are questions that these companies should—but will not—answer. I think the best way to make them transparent is through enacting law that should force them to share information with public. Yes, a lot of them would raise their voice and threaten that such a law would scare away foreign investors. Some of them did that after the Enron-government tussle in Maharashtra. But by now, all of us know the credibility of the company involved.

As our V&D 100 analysis last month showed you, the telecom industry grew handsomely in India. A two-figure growth is an exception in the global telecom scene, not a rule now. And India is one of the two bright spots on the gloomy telecom world (the other being China). If some company is scared away from this opportunity because it is asked to reveal how much business it did last year, good luck to it.

With all the accounting scams that happened one after another, doubt, and not trust, has become the default thought today. It is up to these companies to change that. The only way they can do that is by being transparent. Otherwise, I cannot do anything other than feeling sad for many others like my friend, who have placed the globally ‘admired’ companies on much, much higher pedestals than they deserve.

Shyamanuja Das