WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), the leader of a five-member congressional delegation currently visiting India, is promoting bipartisan legislation that encourages Indian companies to create new manufacturing jobs here in America. Senator Warner discussed his America Recruits Act onshoring proposal in meetings with India’s Finance Minister and other government officials in New Dehli on Monday. Sen. Warner also is promoting increased investment and jobs in Virginia in discussions today with executives of top Indian companies gathered in Hyderabad for the annual meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

At the White House today, the President is calling on global companies to reinvest in America by hosting an “Insourcing American Jobs” forum. Last June, Sen. Warner and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA-10) introduced bipartisan legislation to encourage the creation of new manufacturing jobs here in America, strengthen worker training and industry certification programs, and expand U.S. exports. 

“In our discussions with Indian CEOs, we have been highlighting Virginia’s leading universities, our productive workforce and our entrepreneurial business culture,” Sen. Warner said today. “As the cost of doing business has increased in recent years here in India, it just makes good business sense to take another look at making investments and creating jobs in Virginia and America. The response has been favorable so far, and we will work with state and local officials back home to follow-up aggressively on these business contacts in India.”

The Warner/Wolf legislation, which currently is pending in the House and Senate, would create a competitive grant program for states to provide up to $5,000 in forgivable loans for each new manufacturing job created and maintained for at least five years in a rural region of the U.S.

“While other countries often compete at the national level for business investment, the United States has historically left this economic development activity to the states,” Sen. Warner said today. “Our legislation will provide additional tools for states and localities, and allow them to ‘tip the balance’ by providing an additional financial incentive as global employers decide where in the world they will open new factories and hire new workers.”

Sen. Warner, co-chair of the Senate’s India Caucus, is visiting India this week as part of a congressional delegation that also includes Sens. Michael Bennet (CO), Tom Udall (NM) and Reps. Joseph Crowley (NY) and Cedric Richmond (LA). Rep. Crowley is co-chair of the House India Caucus. The delegation has been meeting with top government and business leaders in New Dehli, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Kolkata, exploring opportunities to expand business, trade, defense, educational and cultural relationships between the two countries. 

According to the McKinsey Global Institute, India's current high-growth rate will result in a major economic transformation over the next two decades. Income levels are forecast to almost triple, and India will climb from its position today as the twelfth-largest consumer market to become the world's fifth-largest consumer market by 2025. At the same time, India’s middle class is forecast to expand  by more than ten times from its current size of 50 million people to more than 580 million people.

According to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Virginia exports to India in 2010 were valued at about $294 million – up from $284 million in 2009 and $190 million in 2008. In April 2005, then-Governor Warner became the first Virginia Governor ever to travel to India, and led the largest-ever state trade delegation to visit the country.