Indian firms saving US jobs not stealing them, Capitol told

In an unusual event, representatives of 25 Indian blue-chip companies operating in the US, industry leaders and diplomats gathered in the Capitol Building, the seat of US lawmaking, on Wednesday met to assure the recession-hit country that India-based companies are ''part of the solution, not part of the problem''.

They released a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) study showing that these companies actually saved, through their acquisition of US firms, 2,585 jobs from being eliminated during the global economic downturn.

Further, the survey suggested that 35 top Indian companies in the US employ over 60,000 people across 40 states, and over 80 per cent of these are local hires.

Unveiling the wide-ranging survey, 'Indian roots, American soil', at the star-studded event, Indian ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar said, ''Indian businesses have cooperated with US companies in developing globally relevant products, processes and technology solutions.''

Shankar noted that these companies, which span a diverse range of sectors from services to manufacturing, had not only generated and sustained thousands of direct and indirect jobs in the US, but had also ''contributed to the global competitiveness of US companies.''

The survey's results show progress made since US president Barack Obama's November 2010 visit to India, which saw the inking of trade and commercial deals exceeding $14.9 billion in value with $9.5 billion in US exports leading to the creation of an estimated 53,670 US jobs. The study results may help dispel concerns expressed by senators last year about US jobs being lost through outsourcing to countries such as India.