The United States will provide financial support from its $200-billion Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) Fund to Indian tech entrepreneurs and infrastructure projects to bolster ‘friendshoring’, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Saturday.
In June 2022, the US announced a plan to raise $200 billion in private and public funds through 2027 for infrastructure financing in developing countries under a G7 initiative aimed at countering China’s multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road project.
“Overall, the US aims to mobilise $200 billion through 2027 for PGII, and we look forward to partnering with India to continue investing in its future,” Yellen said, addressing a roundtable with US and Indian tech business leaders.
The meeting was attended by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, Wipro executive chairman Rishad Premji, Managing Director at Bharat FIH Ltd Josh Foulger, IBM’s Sandip Patel, Intel’s Nivruti Rai and GE’s Vikram Rai, among others.
“Through the partnership for global infrastructure and investment, or PGII, we are investing in digital technologies that will drive inclusive, resilient growth in India,” Yellen told the tech leaders.
Under PGII, the US has announced investments in agri-tech to enable climate-smart agricultural production, and in digital payments systems for microentrepreneurs. These stand alongside investments in renewable energy, health and other infrastructure sectors in India, she said.
The US is India’s biggest trading partner. In 2021, India-US bilateral trade was over $150 billion. Yellen said over 200,000 Indians are studying in America and enriching schools and universities there.
“We depend on each other on a daily basis: Indians use WhatsApp to communicate and many American companies rely on Infosys to operate,” she said.
Nilekani said Infosys hired 7,000 fresh graduates this year in US. “Our aim is to pick young, talented people, including from community colleges, and invest in their training,” he said, adding that 25,000 workers were hired locally in the US in the past six years.
Seeking further tech partnerships with the US, Nilekani said Infosys is the vendor for India’s massive direct and indirect digital tax systems.
“We estimate that the tax gap in the US over the next decade will be $7 trillion. We are not collecting the taxes that are due under our tax laws and we are making a major investment in technology to bridge that gap,” Yellen said responding to Nilekani.
Yellen said the US is advancing an approach called “friendshoring” to bolster the resilience of supply chains. “We are doing this by strengthening integration with our many trusted trading partners — including India. We are seeing progress; as an example, technology companies like Apple and Google have expanded their phone production in India,” she said.