04-06-2009, 01:03 AM
<b>Reliance Industries, TCS among questionable contributors to Obama aide</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries and top IT firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) are among the firms that gave the money to Obama's chief economic advisor Larry Summers, says Huffington Post.
Quoting from the personal disclosures of high-ranking administration officials, the paper says Reliance paid $187,500 toward advisory board compensation to him, while TCS paid $67,500 as speaking fee as on Sep 21, last year.
The documents were released by White House late Friday and show that these firms, which paid hundreds of dollars to Summers, 'have direct financial interests before the government or are intimately involved in the White House's bank relief programs.'
<b>'The document provided for Summers, who serves as one of the president's closest confidants, underscores just how close some of these officials are to the industry over which they now have oversight,'</b> it says.
'The speech payments will undoubtedly raise questions as to the impartiality of the economic advice Summers is providing to the president,' the paper says.
<b>'Already viewed as too favourably disposed to Wall Street interests, the lavish payments for speeches will provide further fodder for those who think the administration has been forgiving in their approach to the banking industry</b>.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Quoting from the personal disclosures of high-ranking administration officials, the paper says Reliance paid $187,500 toward advisory board compensation to him, while TCS paid $67,500 as speaking fee as on Sep 21, last year.
The documents were released by White House late Friday and show that these firms, which paid hundreds of dollars to Summers, 'have direct financial interests before the government or are intimately involved in the White House's bank relief programs.'
<b>'The document provided for Summers, who serves as one of the president's closest confidants, underscores just how close some of these officials are to the industry over which they now have oversight,'</b> it says.
'The speech payments will undoubtedly raise questions as to the impartiality of the economic advice Summers is providing to the president,' the paper says.
<b>'Already viewed as too favourably disposed to Wall Street interests, the lavish payments for speeches will provide further fodder for those who think the administration has been forgiving in their approach to the banking industry</b>.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->