Mumbai: A recently-released US-India Business Council (USIBC) study ‘The Effects of Counterfeiting and Piracy on India’s Entertainment Industry’, served as a "call to arms" during the India super-session at the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The study, prepared for USIBC by Ernst & Young India, demonstrates that India’s burgeoning entertainment industry loses as much as $ 4 billion and 800,000 direct jobs each year due to counterfeiting and piracy. The study was commissioned as part of the USIBC-FICCI Bollywood-Hollywood Initiative, which promotes the sustainable growth and convergence underway between the entertainment industries of the US and India.

Leading the session ‘India’s Entertainment Economy: From Emerging to Surging’ Ernst & Young-India national sector leader, media and entertainment Farokh T. Balsara said, "The Indian entertainment industry is growing at a combined annual rate of over 18% and companies at the NAB show have shown enormous interest in collaborating with India. The USIBC-FICCI Bollywood-Hollywood Initiative has raised expectations that the very real concerns over counterfeiting and piracy will be addressed, leading directly to the generation of additional jobs and revenue."

USIBC director and counsel Greg Kalbaugh noted, "The Hollywood-Bollywood Initiative has really touched a nerve, and companies in the US and India are lining up to offer their support. Now that we’ve quantified the losses, we’re working with government and industry to eliminate counterfeiting and piracy at the source. The first step is supporting India’s adoption of sensible legislation which regulates the production of optical discs. That will have an immediate impact on the rates of counterfeiting and piracy."