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401K or Indian CD
As mentioned in the comments, the problem stems with converting your U.S. Dollars to Indian Rupees so as to be able to purchase an Indian fixed deposit. At the time of writing this, 1 U.S. Dollar = 64 Indian Rupees. Consider the following economic factors: Both of the above factors are not definitive but are worth considering. You might be thinking- what if I never intend to convert my rupees back to dollars? If it is the case that money converted to rupees would stay that way, that then eliminates the risk of foreign exchange losses mentioned above. However, you must still keep in mind that part of the reason interest rates on fixed deposits is as high in India is because inflation is high. A 9% return must be looked at after adjusting for inflation. Inflation is somewhere between 5%-6% at the time of writing which then reduces your real return to about 4% (pre-tax).