India's burgeoning tech sector is responsible for creating more than 400,000 American jobs, according to a report released Monday that prompted calls from leaders in both nations to reform business practices so the industry remains a bright spot in an often unreliable global economy.

The new study from the National Association of Software and Service Companies, a trade group representing Indian technology firms, said business deals between firms in the two countries have generated $22.5 billion in tax revenue for the U.S. since 2011. It shows the Indian information technology industry has "definitely made a big contribution to the U.S. economy,” Indian Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said during an event in the District of Columbia ahead of a critical trade meeting scheduled for Tuesday.

Sitharaman said India's businesses benefit from growing trade and an exchange of skilled workers and said the report should dispel the stereotype that India’s IT sector “takes jobs away from the U.S.” She noted that 10 of the top 15 tech businesses operating in her nation are owned by the U.S. California, Texas, Illinois, New Jersey and New York are the top five states where Indian IT companies have directly supported American jobs, according to the report.

Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker also spoke during the event, which was hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank. She expressed the hope that ​​​the trade meeting can simplify bilateral business practices and highlighted that “neither country can achieve their nation’s economic vision without the other.”

President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Nerendra Modi have struck many of the same themes as they have sought to strengthen economic ties. Obama in January became the first U.S. president to attend Republic Day, a celebration of India's independence.​​ India is poised to become the world's fastest growing economy by 2017, according to the World Bank, and its trade with the U.S. has spiked from $66 billion in 2008 to $103 billion in 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Modi is expected to make a personal case for investment in India during a high-profile visit to the U.S. this week. After traveling to New York City on Friday to attend the United Nations General Assembly, he will become the first head of state from India to visit the West Coast in 33 years.

Modi's events with U.S. business leaders include a visit to Tesla Motors, a town hall Q&A with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a dinner with Fortune 500 executives to discuss business opportunities in his country. ​The outreach also comes at a time when Indian-Americans are taking on more leadership roles in top U.S. tech firms, with executives including Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Sundar Pichai of Google and Ben Silbermann of Pinterest.

During my USA visit I will be visiting the West Coast on 26th and 27th September, where I will join several programmes.... Posted by Narendra Modi on Sunday, September 20, 2015



Despite general approval for his efforts since his election in May 2014, Modi still has work to do​, Pritzker said, citing that the World Bank ranks India 186 out of 189 countries on the ease of enforcing contracts.

“It can take years to resolve a contractual dispute with a vendor in India,” she said during the event in Washington. “These challenges make it increasingly costly and unpredictable to do business in India.”

David Cote, CEO of electronics firm Honeywell, said during the event that he is “pretty bullish” on India’s efforts to cut red tape that impedes doing business, but he also griped about his past dealings with the “stultifying” bureaucracy in that nation.

“It was as if India had imitated British bureaucracy, doubled it and then added more people,” Cote said.

To make international business more convenient, Sitharaman said India’s government is “identifying which laws are archaic … and injurious to business.”

Amid these efforts to strengthen business relationships, officials in both nations have bristled at U.S. laws that limit visas for high skilled workers. Pritzker has spoken in favor of easing the process for skilled Indian workers – including college students educated in the U.S. – to be able to obtain visas so they can join American tech companies. Immigration is a divisive issue ahead of the 2016 election, and Congress has been working for years to reach a compromise on the specific issue of visas for skilled workers.

R. Chandrashekhar, president of NASSCOM, says “separating the issue of skilled workers is an important part of getting the immigration debate right,” adding that the exchange benefits both nations.