US- India relations
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Visits of Indian Prime Ministers to the USA
US Presidents and the Indian Republic Day
Clinton said no to Rao's R-Day invite [ http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com//Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Clinton-said-no-to-Raos-R-Day-invite-25012015001069 The Times of India] Jan 25 2015
Former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao had invited then United States President Bill Clinton to be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade in 1995.
Clinton, however, turned it down saying the dates clashed with his State of The Union address, former foreign secretary K Srinivasan, who served in the Rao regime, revealed in a television show. Srinivasan said that he had called up Strobe Talbott to extend the invite, but he replied in the negative after a few hours.
Trade
Indian investments in the USA
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.
2014: H-1B visas
Source: The Times of India
1. The Times of India, Aug 13 2015
2. The Times of India, Aug 13 2015, Houston
`In 2014, US granted 86% of H-1B visas to Indians'
Almost 86% of H-1B visas that the US granted to IT employees in 2014 went to Indians, a Computerworld analysis of government data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request shows. Most of those H-1B visa holders work for outsourcing companies such as Infosys and TCS. China was far behind in second place at 5% of H-1B visas for IT occupations; no other nation rose above 1%, according to data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. About 76,000 H-1B visas were issued to software professionals in 2014. IT companies “apparently cannot get enough Indian programmers, which has little to do with a shortage of competent natives for these types of jobs, but a lot to do with the industry's business model,“ said Lindsay Lowell, director of policy studies at Georgetown University's Institute. “Young H-1B programmers are in demand because the visa offers control over this contracted shortterm workforce, it permits them to pay less than experienced natives and ability to cultivate programmers who can better serve their clients after returning to India“, Lowell said.
In case of H-1B visas for engineers, Indian workers are still on top with 47% of the visas, or 8,103, followed by China with 19.5%.
Top Indian-Americans
