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-The Economic Times
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 <em>NEW DELHI: </em>India Inc has been conspicuously absent from a four-year-old United Nations-led global initiative against corruption, an unflattering distinction for Indian industry that could also buttress a widespread feeling that doing business in the country is difficult without bribing officials.
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Not one Indian company has yet joined a global panel of companies steered by the world body to act against corruption in their businesses and pressurise governments to stem the graft menace, forcing the head of the initiative to repeat a call to India Inc to join the fight. The panel already has top global names such as Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Siemens and Accenture. 
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&quot;At the moment, I do not have any company from India - not one of them,&quot; Olajobi Makinwa of the United Nations Global Compact Office (UNGCO) told ET, urging the corporate sector to join the fight to remain competitive and reduce poverty. &quot;India is a big market with lots of money that offers huge avenues for corruption to thrive... The private sector must act against graft as governments don't bribe themselves. In most cases, bribes come in the form of huge chunks of black money that flow from the private sector to the government,&quot; she said, drawing a linkage between corporate graft and black money flows. 
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Representatives of Indian industry expressed surprise at the absence of local firms in the UN-led initiative, saying this could simply be because they were not aware of it. 
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&quot;The United Nations is generally perceived as a diplomats' group, not one for businessmen. So if the UN Global Compact wants us to join their international working group against corruption, they should approach us through industry bodies like the CII,&quot; Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej said. 
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Last November, ET reported that five Indian companies had joined a global business coalition against corruption, pledging to stamp out bribery in their organisations and across their supply chains . 
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Makinwa's comments come at a time corruption and crony capitalism are dominating the nationaldiscourse, casting a cloud over some of the country's top business groups and hobbling government functioning in general. 
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Saying the private sector has immense power, she urged companies to work together against corruption. &quot;Collective action is very important in this fight against this hydra-headed problem as no company alone can fight the graft menace. If a company says we won't pay bribes, but others continue to do so, it will be left alone. But when everyone says we are not going to pay up, then it becomes a force to reckon with,&quot; she said. Makinwa, a Nigerian national who once headed the South African chapter of Amnesty International, said she was surprised to find that although public sector Indian firms have signed integrity pacts designed by Transparency International, the private sector was yet to do so. 
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&quot;The government and the private sector are a reflection of the society we live in,&quot; Makinwa said, suggesting that the popular discourse on corruption be reframed. &quot;We don't want any sector to point fingers. Companies say the government indulges in extortion. The government says 'Oh no, that's not true', and people would say, 'both the government and private firms are bad'. That won't take us anywhere,&quot; she said. 
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Makinwa, in India this week to promote the UN's attempt to integrate anti-corruption and good governance into the global development agenda when the millennium development goals expire at the end of 2015, said she would, upon her return to New York, write again to top Indian companies to sign up to UNGCO. Working together at the global level can help Indian companies share the learnings and tools developed to counter graft, which include whistleblower protection policies and risk assessment tools. &quot;A success story can tell a company that when you fight corruption, it does pay,&quot; she said.
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