WASHINGTON: One Senator (John Cornyn) boasted of his state, Texas, being the top recipient of Indian investment; "As you might have heard, we like being Number One," he preened. "We are coming after you, Texas!" called out California Congressman (Ami Bera), surprised that his state did not make the Top Five foreign investment destinations for Indian companies, although it ranked second in job creation by India Inc . A Wyoming Congresswoman admitted her state was not exactly teeming with Indian investment, but it still held enough attraction — and raw materials — to draw a Tata chemicals plant to the state.For more than an hour in a Capitol Hill meeting room, a score of U.S lawmakers thanked Indian companies and invited India Inc to do more at an event where the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the auditing firm Grant Thornton (GT) released a report showing India-based companies invested $15 billion and created 91,000 jobs across the United States . In what is becoming an annual exercise, the report "Indian Roots, American Soil," is aimed at countering the perception that India Inc is an outsourcing menace that only bleeds American jobs.To the contrary, the total value of tangible investments made by 100 India-based companies that responded to a survey exceeds $15.3 billion, the report said, calculating that average amount of investment received from Indian companies per state at $443 million. The top five states in which Indian companies have contributed the highest foreign direct investment were identified as: Texas ($3.84 billion), Pennsylvania ($3.56 billion), Minnesota ($1.8 billion), New York ($1.01 billion) and New Jersey ($1 billion). And the top five states in which Indian companies have generated maximum employment: New Jersey (9.278 jobs), California (8.937 jobs), Texas (6,230 jobs), Illinois (4,779 jobs) and New York (4,134 jobs).Small wonder lawmakers from Texas were chuffed, teasing their counterparts from other states that there was more coming. But even within Texas, lawmakers from Houston twitted lawmakers from Dallas and vice-versa (including boasting about the best Indian food) in a lighthearted display of one-upmanship that showed that when it comes to attracting investments and jobs, U.S lawmakers will go to any extent, even lobbying for local restaurants.All this is good news for India Inc., which has periodically been under the cosh for sponging American jobs, although some critics say it speaks poorly for New Delhi that its industry leaders find the business environment in India so lousy that they would much rather invest in America. According to the CII-GT report, 84.5% of companies surveyed plan to make more investments in the United States, and 90% of the companies plan to hire more employees locally in the next five years.If that happens, future reports might show U.S lawmakers breaking out into bhangra.