Washington, Oct 10 (IANS): American businesses have leveraged India's strengths to produce globally competitive products, while Indian companies have invested $21 billion in the United States, according to India's Ambassador Nirupama Rao

Private participation in trade and investment has created strong networks of value creation, she said at a forum last week underlining the significant mutual advantages of India-US economic engagement.

Rao was speaking on ''US-India Economic and Commercial Partnership: Two-Way Job Creation', at a session organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, a CII news release said.

Dispelling some myths about the purported imbalance in the trade relationship, Rao highlighted that US trade with India in sectors such as manufacturing, engineering and high-tech products is actually in favour of the US, while in the services sector too, trade and investment linkages have created jobs, rather than taken them away.

Ben Erulkar, Senior Vice President, Economic Development, Detroit Regional Chamber highlighted the positive contributions made by Indian immigrants and businesses to the Michigan economy, which had suffered some of the worst impact of the economic downturn of 2008.

Joseph Abraham, Senior Vice President, HCL America said HCL has invested in North Carolina, Washington and New Jersey, increasing the US employee headcount by 175 percent over the last three years, and have hired 40 percent of the workers locally.

Surya Kant, President, Major Markets (North America, UK and Europe), Tata Consultancy Services and Chairman, CII-India Business Forum, noted that TCS had opened 20 offices in North America, with 2500 people hired locally.