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Noting that as a result of increased demand for innovative products and services, US exports to India
had risen from less than $4 billion in 2001 to over $21 billion last year, he said: "Today, we're building on
that momentum." As India moves forward with its ambitious plan to invest $1 trillion in infrastructure
over the next five years, Bryson said American companies with deep experience in building
infrastructure in the US "can work with India to accomplish its goals." Moving forward, the India-US
Commercial Dialogue will focus on areas such as smart grids, intelligent transportation systems, and
sustainable manufacturing, he said.
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US plans to grow trade with India in food products
The US is looking forward to growing trade in food products with India, a senior American diplomat said
on Tuesday. In the US, we love Indian food. India exported more than $3 billion worth of food to the US
in 2011.
Our exports to India of healthy foods grew by 35 percent," said the US Charge d'Affaires Peter Burleigh.
"We look forward to seeing this trend continue," Burleigh said in a statement as leading US-based firms
and industry groups took part in the four-day food fair, “AAHAR 2012", that began here Tuesday. The
California Prune Board, Food Export Association of the Midwest USA and Food Export USA North East
and Washington Apple Commission are some of the organizations taking part in the show.
They are displaying a wide range of food offerings at the American pavilion, including prunes, apples,
and many other food products from the Southern, Midwest and Northeast states. Allan Mustard,
minister counselor for agricultural affairs at the US Embassy, said the US presence at the fair reflected
the Indian consumers' increasing interest for quality food products from the US.
US Ambassador-designate Nancy Powell at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee last month said the bilateral goods and services trade was expected to cross a record $100
billion this year, an "astounding quadrupling" since 2000.
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Visa rejections disrupt Indian IT operations in US
The US visa restrictions are causing huge disruptions in the onsite activities of Indian IT companies. Visa
rejections are at an all-time high and companies are not able to send enough support and maintenance
staff to their client locations overseas to complete projects on time.
"We promised a client in the Bay area that we would be sending 15 people from India to support it
onsite. But we could send only three people, the rest were denied visas," said the global sales head of an
IT firm in Bangalore who did not want to be named.
He said the client was very unhappy because it meant they had to depend on available alternatives,
which were either costlier or of poorer quality.
Another official of an IT firm said that the visa scarcity was compelling Indian companies to hire
additional talent at the customer location, paying often as much as 60% more. "It has a direct impact on
our margins. For almost half a dozen clients, we have not been able to meet delivery commitments in
time. On some occasions this even led to heated arguments with the clients,'' he said.
A group of domestic and U.S IT firms recently sought the intervention of US President Barack Obama to
resolve the visa issue. In a letter to Obama, companies including Wipro Technologies, TCS, Cognizant,
HP, Intel, Microsoft, Accenture and many others said immigration authorities were exceeding the law in