India-US Trade: Indian tech industry supported close to 1.6 million jobs, contributed nearly $198 billion to US economy, says FM Sitharaman

India US Business and Economic Opportunities: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke about how the Indian tech industry has contributed significantly to the US economy and both economies have taken several initiatives together to combat the ongoing global economic crisis at the India US Business and Economic Opportunities Event in New Delhi on Friday.

While addressing the session at India US Business and Economic Opportunities Event, she added, “The Indian tech industry directly, and by supporting the US client base, has supported close to 1.6 million jobs and contributed around $198 billion to the US economy.”

Finance Minister stressed the fact that the US-India bilateral ties have contributed enormously to the trade and it has experienced enormous growth in the last decade. Be it in terms of defense trade or goods trade, both countries have witnessed exponential growth through bilateral ties. “A testament to our deepening economic and business relations is that bilateral trade in goods between the two countries crossed the $100 billion mark in 2021, making it the largest volume of goods trade in India-US economic history,” Sitharaman added.

The US Department of State once mentioned in their release that the United States of America is India’s largest trading partner and most important export market. Many U.S. companies view India as a critical market and have expanded their operations there.

Finance Minister also acknowledged the contribution of the USA to the foreign capital inflow to India. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has recently released data, which showed that the US has surpassed China becoming India's top trading partner in 2021-22.

Bilateral trade between the US and India reached USD 119.42 billion (2021-2022) as against USD 80.51 billion in 2020-21. 

Exports to the US also witnessed a surge to USD 76.11 billion in 2021-22 from USD 51.62 billion in the previous fiscal year, while imports rose to USD 43.31 billion as compared to about USD 29 billion in 2020-21. The USA is currently one of the few countries with which India has a trade surplus. In 2021-22, India had a trade surplus of USD 32.8 billion with the US.