Indian investments in the USA
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
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Govt securities
2017: India ranks 12th
At $145bn, India ranks 12th in US g-secs kitty, March 5, 2018: The Times of India
From: At $145bn, India ranks 12th in US g-secs kitty, March 5, 2018: The Times of India
India’s exposure to US government securities rose sharply to a high of nearly $145 billion at the end of 2017, according to latest official data.
The country remained the 12th-largest overseas holder of such securities, just behind Saudi Arabia, whose holding stood at over $147 billion in December 2017. India has been raising its holding of US government securities during last year except for a few months when the total exposure had declined.
Figures compiled by the US treasury department show that the holding of India increased a little over $26 billion compared to the yearago period. In December 2016, the exposure was just over $118 billion. Cayman Islands was at the fourth position with holding worth $270 billion. Among the BRIC countries, India had the thirdlargest exposure while that of Russia was lower at just over $102 billion.
2020: India is no. 11
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From: August 20, 2021: The Times of India
See graphic:
Countries holding most US government securities, presumably at end of 2020 (in $ bn)
Jobs created, taxes paid
2011-15
The Times of India, Sep 22 2015
Indian IT cos paid $22bn in US taxes over five years: Report
Chidanand Rajghatta India's tech industry ponied up mo re than $22 billion in US federal, state, and local taxes in the 2011-2015 timeframe even as its $2 billion investment in America supported more than 4,10,000 jobs in the US, a new report by India's software and services trade association Nasscom has revealed.
The report, released by commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the sidelines of the US-India Strategic and Commercial dialogue, seeks to dispel the “myth“ that India is bleeding US white-collar jobs and distressing its tech economy . On the contrary , it says the economic value of the operational support provided by India's IT firms to over 90% of Fortune 500 firms and thousands of other American businesses “make them more innovative, competitive, primed for new market opportunities, and ea ger to expand jobs.“ “Leveraging Indian talent, American firms have been able to bring cost-competitive solutions that have helped improve their global market share and bring products with shorter production cycles,“ Sitharaman said, adding that the report “focuses on that part of the India-US bilateral equation, illuminating many of the benefits that Indian IT organizations bring to the US in period covered by the study .“
According to the report, two-way trade between US and India topped $580 billion over the last seven years, including $103 billion in 2014. In the same timeframe, India's foreign direct investment in the US has doubled, touching $7.1 billion. US FDI in India during this period was $24.1 billion. While the numbers are chump change compared to US-China trade, the report emphasized that the Indian tech industry through their US operations supports 156,000 direct jobs and 255,000 indirect jobs.
“The two-way flow of investments and intellectual talent is central to the growing commercial and strategic relationships between India and the US,“ said Nasscom President R Chandrashekhar, noting that the organization has been advocating more open markets for US companies in India, as well as for US policies that permit temporary high-skilled workers from India to support their hundreds of American customers.
In fact, the report threw up a little known aspect of India's high-skilled workers underwriting the healthcare costs of first responders to the 911 disaster. Under a little known US law passed in 2010, the H-1B and L-1 Visa fee per application of $2,000 and $2,250 respectively , amounting to $70 million annually , is applied to provide healthcare and financial compensation to the first responders. In other words, the Indian IT industry has paid more than $350 million to take care of 911 first responders including firefighters.
The Nasscom report also challenged the perception of Indian IT industry paying cutrate slave wages to workers, a charge that was renewed in a new survey that rated Indian IT companies one of the worst paymasters in the world (at least in India). The report asserted that in the US, while American nationals were paid an average $81,447 per year, US visa holders (guest workers) were paid $81,022, while incurring an addition cost of $15,000 towards visa processing and other expenses.
The report also asserted that while overall unemployment in the US was 6.2%, it was only 2.7% in tech sector, belying the impression that foreign guest workers were adding to the US unemployment situation. “The two-way flow of investments and intellectual talent is central to the growing commercial and strategic relationships between India and the US. It's not about one nation taking unfair advantage of the other; it is about moving forward together to improve the economies, opportunities, and quality of life for citizens of both nations,“ the report said.
2018: Indian companies pay more than average wage
Shilpa Phadnis, February 14, 2020: The Times of India
From: Shilpa Phadnis, February 14, 2020: The Times of India
Indian IT firms are estimated to have paid an average compensation of $96,300 to its US employees in 2018, higher than the average wage of $94,800 that IT professionals get in the US. This is data from US research firm IHS Markit Research.
The Indian IT story is also compelling from the US job-creation standpoint. In 2018, Indian IT employed nearly 1.8 lakh people in America and supported an additional 3.4 lakh jobs across the US economy. So a total of over 5 lakh direct and indirect jobs.
IHS Markit Research said job creation in the US by Indian IT companies grew at an average annual rate of 3.8% from 2016 to 2018, faster than the 2.6% average annual employment growth of the industry of which it is a part of.
2019/ 20: Indian IT has over 1L US employees
From: February 22, 2020: The Times of India
See graphic:
US nationals employed by Indian IT companies, presumably as in 2019/ 20
The top four Indian IT firms have over 55,000 American employees in the US. The number is sharply up from a few years ago, and reflects the companies’ efforts to overcome visa barriers and become more global in their operations. Including Cognizant, which is US-headquartered but has an India heritage, the tally of American employees is over 1 lakh. Cognizant employs 46,400 people in North America.
IT industry body Nasscom’s data on American employees — disclosed for the first time — shows TCS has 20,000 such employees, Infosys 14,000, HCL 13,400, and Wipro 10,000. For all of them, these numbers are about 70% of their overall US employee strength (including those on visas).
Infosys had committed in 2017 to hire 10,000 American workers at its US operations. The data shows it is now well over that target.
TCS HR head Milind Lakkad recently told TOI the company is hiring 1,500 freshers from campuses in the US and Europe this year, one of the highest in recent times.
Including those on visas, the Indian IT industry had 1.7 lakh employees in the US in fiscal 2018, according to estimates by research firm IHS Markit Research. This is up from 1.5 lakh in fiscal 2015.
TOI reported recently that Indian IT firms are estimated to have paid an average compensation of $96,300 to its US employees in 2018, higher than the average wage of $94,800 that IT professionals get in the country. This data is also from IHS Markit Research.
While visa is one reason to have local hires, the other is the newer kinds of digital and outcome-based work that IT companies are now doing, and which require client proximity. Infosys, for instance, has set up half-a-dozen technology centres across Indiana, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Texas, North Carolina and Arizona.
Indian IT’s local hiring will serve to reduce subcontracting costs, which have been soaring in recent years. To meet people requirements quickly, the companies depend on subcontractors who supply staff. But these expenses can be prohibitive.
For Infosys, this expense rose by 40% to Rs 6,031 crore in 2018-19, compared to Rs 4,298 crore in the year before. For TCS, subcontracting expenses rose by 26% to Rs 11,330 crore in 2018-19.
Jobs created: the top American beneficiary states
The Times of India, Jul 16 2015
Chidanand Rajghatta
India Inc invests $15bn in US, creates 91,000 jobs
One Senator (John Cornyn) boasted of his state, Texas, being the top recipient of Indian investment; “As you might have heard, we like being number one,“ he preened. “We are coming after you, Texas!“ called out California Congressman (Ami Bera), surprised that his state did not make the top five foreign investment destinations for Indian firms, although it ranked second in job creation by India Inc.
A Wyoming Congresswoman admitted her state was not exactly teeming with Indian investment, but it still held enough attraction -and raw materials -to draw a Tata chemicals plant to the state.
For more than an hour in a Capitol Hill meeting room, a score of US lawmakers thanked Indian companies and invited India Inc to do more at an event where the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the auditing firm Grant Thornton (GT) released a report showing India-based companies invested $15 billion and created 91,000 jobs across the US. In what is becoming an annual exercise, the report `Indian Roots, American Soil,' is aimed at countering the perception that India Inc is an outsourcing menace that only bleeds American jobs.
To the contrary , the total value of tangible investments made by 100 India-based companies that responded to a survey exceeds $15.3 billion, the report said, calculating that average amount of investment received from Indian companies per state at $443 million. The top five states in which Indian companies have contributed the highest foreign direct investment were identified as: Texas ($3.84 billion), Pennsylvania ($3.56 billion), Minnesota ($1.8 billion), New York ($1.01 billion) and New Jersey ($1 billion).
And the top five states in which Indian companies have generated maximum employment: New Jersey (9,278 jobs), California (8,937 jobs), Texas (6,230 jobs), Illinois (4,779 jobs) and New York (4,134 jobs). Small wonder lawmakers from Texas were chuffed, teasing their counterparts from other states that there was more coming.
But even within Texas, lawmakers from Houston twitted lawmakers from Dallas and vice-versa (including boasting about the best Indian food) in a lighthearted display of one-upmanship that showed when it comes to attracting investments and jobs, US lawmakers will go to any extent, even lobbying for local restaurants. All this is good news for India Inc, which has periodically been under the cosh for sponging American jobs.
See also
Indian investments in the USA
