Indian companies have invested $15.3 billion in the United States, with Texas being the top destination, and created 91,000 jobs, according to report released Tuesday.
The report, by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and auditing firm Grant Thornton, also found that Indian companies are present in all 50 states of the US.
Most of them are in IT, IT-enabled services and telecom — a whopping 40%, but the report noted a growing interest in life sciences, manufacturing and automotive sectors.
The report was based on a survey of 100 Indian companies, which, CII and Indian officials said, was not the totality of all Indian businesses here — there is no count of it.
But the story told by these 100 companies was compelling enough for a large number of US lawmakers to show up at the report’s release on Capitol Hill, and bait each other.
“We are coming after you Texas,” called out Ami Bera, Democratic member of the House of Representatives from California, which clocked in at Number 10.
“Good luck,” said Pete Sessions, a Republican member of the House from Texas, who looked clearly chuffed about his state coming first. And so did other lawmakers from there.
“We like being Number One,” said John Cornyn, a senior Republican senator from Texas, who co-founded the chamber’s India caucus with then senator Hillary Clinton.
India is the eighth fastest growing source of foreign direct investments into the United States, according to SelectUSA of the country’s department of commerce.
Indian FDI in the United States (stock) was $5.2 billion in 2012 (latest data available), up 6.7% from 2011. And US FDI in India was $28.4 billion, which was a 15.3% increase over 2011.
Some Indian companies with operations in the US face an image problem — specially those in IT and enabled services. They are seen as replacing local hires with Indians on H-1B.
Businesses and Indian officials have long felt a need to counter that perception with a report such as this that highlights the jobs Indian businesses create here instead.
These 100 companies have created 91,000 jobs directly and many more indirectly through interlinkages and support operations, as is always the case.
About 30 companies did not respond to the survey. If they had, all the numbers from total investment to job would be significantly higher, and that frustrates CII and officials.
“They probably want to just lie low and not attract attention,” said a source, who did not elaborate as to why they would want to do that. They are legit firms, and in compliance of all laws.
Source - HIndustan Times
No comments:
Post a Comment