Despite the Visa bite, India to continue investing in US

MUMBAI, INDIA: One hundred Indian companies invested $15 billion and employed 91,000 people across the United States in 2014, and the trend will continue.

According to a report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Grant Thornton, an independent audit, tax and advisory firm, released recently, most companies want to make further investments and recruit more employees in the US.

A state-by-state breakdown showed the concentration of Indian companies to be highest in New Jersey (9,278 jobs), California (8,937 jobs), Texas (6,230 jobs), Illinois (4,779 jobs) and New York (4,134 jobs); these states have historically been home to most Indian-Americans.

According to the report the 100 Indian companies have collectively made tangible investments in excess of $15 billion in 35 states. About half of these states have received over $100 million each in collective investment from Indian companies. The states that received more than $1 billion from Indian companies include Texas ($3.85 billion), Pennsylvania ($3.56 billion), Minnesota ($1.8 billion), New York ($1.01 billion) and New Jersey ($1 billion).

Furthermore, the report shows that 84.5 percent Indian companies are planning to invest more. Although the IT and IT-enabled sectors still dominate with 40 percent of surveyed companies working in the fields, other industries like life sciences, pharmaceuticals, mining, design, engineering and construction are also growing.

The report, now in its fourth edition, came as immigration and visa issues dog the Indian business interests in that country.

It must be recalled that the US labor department had launched investigations into possible visa rule violations against Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, last month.