US visas to Indians have shot up by 60%: Ambassador Garcetti

NEW DELHI — The number of US visas issued to Indian students and businessmen has shot up by 60% in recent months compared to the previous year and efforts are on to remove the backlog further, US Ambassador Eric Garcetti said on Tuesday.

Addressing a conference of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, Garcetti said that India-US trade had gone up sharply to $200 billion a year and he was looking at a target of $500 billion in the near future.

Garcetti said that at a recent meeting of global business leaders in the US, the largest number of participants were from India and this reflected the strengthening ties between the two countries.

Citing the large investments being made in India by US companies such as Boeing and Apple, Garcetti said American companies had created more than 3 million jobs in India.

He said he was looking at the India-US business ties emerging as a two-way relationship in which Indian companies would also be investing in the US to create jobs.