India, this week, pulled out the stops in showcasing its foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into and job-creating effects in the U.S., at an event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) that marked the first major initiative in this regard since the beginning of the second Obama term.
The star-studded event had particular relevance for business-to-business ties as well, as the CII- India Business Forum meet coincided with the National Governors’ Association winter meeting and a number of U.S. State Governors and key economic and political officials thus participated.
Nirupama Rao, Indian Ambassador to the U.S., set the tone for the interaction when she remarked, “Job creation and investments by Indian companies are a very real component of the U.S.-India trade and commercial relationship. Indian companies operating in the U.S. are adding tremendous value to the local economies in which they operate, the most tangible effects of which are felt at the state and county level.”
With Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai recently concluding a successful visit, including a meeting with new Secretary of State John Kerry, Ms. Rao also underscored the importance of these business links. She said that the engagement at the state level was “very much on the bilateral economic agenda of both governments and efforts like the CII event go a long way in strengthening these linkages.” Joining the programme were Governors representing both the Democratic and Republican parties, hailing from the following states: Jack Markell of Delaware, Terry Branstad of Iowa, Jan Brewer of Arizona, Mike Beebe of Arkansas, Dannel Malloy of Connecticut, Patrick McCrory of North Carolina, Margaret Hassan of New Hampshire, Gary Herbert of Utah, and Matt Mead of Wyoming.
The Indian companies represented at the reception were located across 40 states in the U.S. and Washington D.C., CII noted, adding that the majority of these companies “increased employee count in recent years and created new jobs, reflecting the resilience of their operations even during the economic slowdown.”
This event marks their contributions in this area since a CII report titled “Indian Roots, American Soil” came out last year, in which it was noted that these companies had invested more than $820 million in U.S.-based facilities, had collectively conducted 72 mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. since 2005 and had projected research and development investments estimated to be over $190 million in 2012 alone.
