Apple and Google expanded phone production in India; More U.S. companies to explore tech sector: U.S. Treasury Secretary

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Saturday that tech companies like Apple and Google have expanded phone production in India, and as the US looks to the future, she looks forward to deepen ties in the technology sector.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was speaking at the roundtable with U.S. and Indian tech executives in Bengaluru on the sidelines of the first meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors under the India’s G20 Presidency.

“I look forward to deepening ties in the technology sector. The United States offers an approach called ‘friendshoring’ to build resilience in our supply chains. We do this by deepening integration with our many partners trusted trading companies, including India. We are seeing progress, for example, tech companies like Apple and Google have expanded their production of phones in India,” Yellen said.

Janet said that through the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII), the United States is investing in digital technologies that will drive inclusive and resilient growth in India.

Under PGII, the United States announced investments in agri-tech to enable climate-smart agricultural production, and in digital payment systems for micro-entrepreneurs, Yellen said, adding that those These go hand in hand with investments in the renewable energy, healthcare and other infrastructure sectors in India.

Overall, the secretary said the US aims to raise $200 billion (almost Rs. 16,58,500 crore) till 2027 for PGII and the US is looking forward to partner with India to continue investing in the future.

The roundtable brought together top executives like Sandip Patel from IBM, Nandan Nilekani from Infosys, Nivruti Rai from Intel, Rishad Premji from Wipro, Josh Foulger from Foxconn, Vikram Rai from GE, Rekha Menon from Accenture, Alexander Slater of US India Business Council (USIBC) and Nivedita Mehra of the United States-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF).

Yellen’s said the United States is India’s biggest trading partner.

“In 2021, our two-way trade stood at over $150 billion (almost Rs, 12,43,900 crore). Our people-to-people ties affirm the closeness of our relations. 2 lakh Indians study in America and enrich our schools and universities,” she said, adding, “We depend on each other on a daily basis. Indians use WhatsApp to communicate and many American businesses rely on Infosys to operate.

Yellen’s last visit to India was in November as part of the economic and financial partnership between the United States and India.

Nandan Nilekeni, non-executive chairman of Infosys, said Infosys has 330,000 employees worldwide.

Infosys has a solid base in the United States.

A world-class training center in Indianapolis for Americans only.

Nilekeni said, “We recruited 7,000 new graduates this year. We work with all American universities and have teaching institutes with 1,200 teachers in the United States and we want to expand that.”

Nilekani said that Infosys manages India’s tax system on the back-end. “The entire income tax and goods and services tax (GST) system is managed by Infosys in the back end, which is completely digital and paperless,” he added.

He also said that the United States invented the Internet and the Global Positioning System (GPS). “We realized that if we enable public infrastructure across government at scale and make it an open standard on an equal footing and are innovative at the top, magic like Aadhaar, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is happening,” Nilekani added.

Sandip Patel, Managing Director of IBM India/South Asia, said it was great to meet and discuss strengthening the trusted technology partnership between India and the United States.

“Proactive policy measures on critical and emerging technologies will strengthen the support of friends and benefit the economy and the peoples of both countries,” he added.