The US-India Business Council (USIBC) has asked its 250 member-companies to revitalise participation and interest in the Coalition for Economic Growth and American Jobs (CEGAJ), which it launched during the last backlash against outsourcing in 2004.

The USIBC said this precautionary is the result of the ''unusual US Senatorial inquiries'' that were sent on Tuesday to a number of its member-companies.

The inquiries sought clarification as to the companies' application for and use of H1-B visas.

''USIBC strongly supports expanding the H1-B visa cap, as well as developing a new technology professional visa that will facilitate greater movement of technology professionals between the US and India,'' the business council said in a statement.

USIBC president Ron Somers in his call to the US Congress to increase H1-B visa caps and liberalise ease of travel for technology professionals, has pledged that USIBC will remain vigilant in its efforts to prevent a backlash against this ever-more important inter-dependent industry.

''USIBC will ratchet up its education campaign on Capitol Hill to highlight the benefits resulting from the robust commerce of a 'flatter world' economy. We will continue to push for greater movement of technology professionals, including the increase in the H1-B visa cap, as well as the creation of a new technology professional visa.'' ''These are essential elements needed to support the integration of our information economy, which must be on par with the US-India strategic partnership,'' Somers said.

The USIBC has also been monitoring the recent explosion of legislation at the state level that would constrain outsourcing in varying ways.

The CEGAJ, launched in 2004 during the last flare-up against outsourcing, comprises three million member companies including the US Chamber of Commerce, the USIBC, the Information Technology Association of America, and the American Council of Life Insurers, among others. The Coalition's mandate is to spread the word that American competitiveness requires global integration, including value-added IT-enabled support from overseas.

Since the Coalition's formation, USIBC and other like-minded associations through the CEGAJ have worked hard to educate Americans about the vital importance of being able to source talented work and services wherever they can be produced most efficiently, thereby enabling the US companies to remain competitive on a global scale.

''The US-based companies have become extremely productive in the intervening years, and today the US economic rate of unemployment is at its lowest in history as a result,'' the USIBC said.

International trade in goods and services benefits vast numbers of working Americans, he added.

The USIBC is the premier business advocacy organisation comprised of 250 US companies with investment interests in India, joined by India's top global companies, whose mandate is to deepen trade and strengthen US-India commercial ties.

USIBC celebrates its 32nd anniversary on June 27 this year in Washington at its 'Global India Summit', which will feature Boeing's CEO Jim McNerney, Reliance's [Get Quote] CEO Mukesh Ambani, Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, US Trade Representative Susan Schwab, US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.