MUMBAI: The US-India Business Council (USIBC) has announced a contract with the Indian arm of Ernst & Young as the next step in its “Bollywood-Hollywood” anti-piracy initiative.
Ernst & Young will produce a professional study showing how harmful entertainment and media piracy is to India, focusing on the harm to Indian employment and tax revenue, as well as the Indian citizens who work in this worldwide industry.
Says USIBC President Ron Somers, “Since USIBC rolled out this initiative with our partners the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), USIBC has been deluged with interest in how the US and India can work together to stop piracy in the entertainment and media industry. The contract with Ernst & Young in India is the logical next step.”
Greg Kalbaugh, Director of Intellectual Property for the USIBC, will oversee the study. Says Kalbaugh, “Showing just how much India is hurt by entertainment and media piracy will set the stage for cooperation in anti-piracy public service advertising, passage of optical disc legislation, and US-India cooperation in stopping cross-border piracy.”
Somers adds, “USIBC pledges to work in the near-term to halt piracy of Indian films right here in our backyard. How can we credibly hope to shine the torchlight on piracy in India if we ignore piracy of Indian films here at home? USIBC will provide responsible leadership of this initiative against all piracy of Indian entertainment, whether in India or North America.”
The US-India Business Council is the premier business advocacy organisation representing 250 of the largest US companies investing in India, joined by two dozen of India’s largest global companies with a mandate to strengthen US-India commercial ties. USIBC celebrates its 32nd Anniversary on 27 June this year in Washington, DC, at its “Global India Summit,” which will feature Boeing’s CEO Jim McNerney, Reliance CEO Mukesh Ambani, India’s Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, US Trade Representative Susan Schwab, US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
