Lobbying is considered as old as democracy. India being a democratic nation is not foreign to the concept of Lobbying. It exists in India whether we like it or not. It was discussed at length when the Nira Radia tapes about 2G scam were leaked or when Wal-Mart made its standard declaration about 25 million $ (Rs. 125 crores) being spent for "access in Indian market".

Webster’s dictionary defines “lobby” to mean “a group of persons who conduct a campaign to influence members of a legislature to vote according to the group’s special interest”. In common parlance, lobbying means actions or activities of any individual or group of individuals designed to influence the policies or regulations of a public authority. 

In the current scenario countries like Australia, Canada, United States of America, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Slovenia, Israel, United Kingdom, Ireland and Taiwan have formulated and enforced laws to regularize lobbying. The lobbyists are required to register themselves with the relevant authorities.

The activities of lobbyist are usually on the borderline of bribe or corrupt practices and there is great need to draw a line as to what is acceptable as when influencing political class in their decision-making process. Explaining them that the pros outweight the cons is ok, whereas paying them to not look at the cons is not. We need a law to regularise it at the earliest, to get in greater transparency into the system.