India is net job creator for US firms, says Nasscom

India’s trade body National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has refuted public perception in the US that outsourcing jobs to India are contributing to job losses for US companies and that free trade agreements were responsible for America’s current economic woes.

India is a net job creator for US companies, not the other way around. The Indo-US economic relationship benefits the American economy and its job market in many important and tangible ways, wrote Som Mittal, president of the apex body of India’s information technology and business process outsourcing industry in an opinion piece in the Seattle Times.

He wrote the US had emerged as a preferred destination for Indian investment, adding that, India currently ranks second after United Arab Emirates in the list of fastest growing foreign investors in America.

India has become a major investor in US and a destination for American goods and services, Mittal said, again substantiating his point of view that India had never sought publicity for its commercial connections to the US.

It has a rapidly growing population of consumers hungry for products of many kinds. And unlike other large economies that have been suffering through recessions in recent years, India has increased its total outward foreign direct investment and devoted an increasing share of that largesse to the American market in need of financial support, he said.

Mittal said Indian companies have increased their investment in the US by more than $20 billion over the last five years while referring to a recent study by Ernst & Young.

The study, which was commissioned by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) , said the investments supported the creation of more than 65,000 American jobs.

US business leaders had signed export deals with India worth more than $10 billion to US employers including Boeing during president Obama’s summit with Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh on the former’s visit to India in November.

“President Obama estimated those contracts would create 50,000 American jobs -- many in the Seattle area -- in the near future, proof that America's expanding economic partnership with India is far from a one-way street, Mittal said.