India on Hiring Binge That Trump Tariffs Cannot Stop

Long partnership binds US firms looking for workers overseas and India's pool of labour

- Alex Travelli and Hari Kumar

BENGALURU - In India's most advanced cities, US companies are racing to set up more and bigger offshore campuses – fully staffed offices with skilled Indian professionals, performing functions vital to global business.

The concentration is most stark in parts of Bengaluru.

Mr Apul Nahata of RapidAI, a Silicon Valley-based medical technology company that uses artificial intelligence to interpret brain scans, can look out the window of the office he leads in India and see a "density of companies" relevant to his work.

"If I walk a half-kilometre, I see Google, Qualcomm, Nvidia, Visa, Samsung and Amazon right here," said Mr Nahata, who spent 10 years of his career in California.

He is especially tuned in to his neighbours in tech, but JPMorgan Chase has the biggest of these offices, with 55,000 workers spread across Bengaluru and four other Indian cities. Even all-American retailers like Target and Lowe's have centres employing 4,000 to 5,000 Indians in Bengaluru.

Under President Donald Trump, the US is upending some of its most important trading partnerships. He is particularly irritated by the US$62 billion (S$83 billion) US goods trade deficit with India. Mr Trump has also complained about Indian workers in the US without legal status.