Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Apr 03, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Apr 03, 2003 |
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Info-Tech
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Software `Visa violations not deliberate' Chitra Phadnis
BANGALORE, April 2 THE i-flex issue has once again brought to the fore indignation over the way Indian IT professionals have been treated in three different instances in the last few months. While the backlash is understandable, there is also a subtle sub-plot — that Indian companies cannot afford to "stretch" visas to suit them any longer. No company deliberately flouted regulations, said Mr Avinash Vashista, CEO of neoIT, which brings outsourcing customers and suppliers together. However, almost all of them would have been "forced by circumstances" at some time or the other to violate regulations, he said. "If customers demanded people very urgently, one general practice was to send them on a business visa, so that they could keep coming and going," he said. Business visas are granted for shorter terms and are meant for people to hold business discussions. Developers who actually work onsite would require the longer term "work permits" and would be eligible for salaries locally. Industry sources confirmed that software companies often sent people on business visas, but kept them longer to do development. Mr Vashista also said that it was "commonly misused". "If you ask me if that is something that most companies have done, sure it is. Is it a violation, yes it is, and has it happened before, yes, it has," he said. The difference was that earlier Governments were lax about it, but in today's changed circumstances, where native professionals and unions are turning around to protest against outsourcing, they have started taking a strict stand. Mr C. Mahalimgam, HR head of Scandent, preferred to give both parties the benefit of doubt. Speaking from his experience, he said that the Netherlands authorities always validated the birth certificates of visiting professionals by actually visiting their places of birth. Regulations allowed only business visa holders to stay in hotels; those on a work permit had to fill in a residential address in their forms, which would be their home in that country. In India, most software companies hire people from the travel industry to advise them on visa regulations. It was unlikely that any of them were out to deliberately flout rules, because "we are all here for the long haul," he said. What could happen was that some countries might have changed the rules which the Indian companies were not aware of, or they could have misunderstood or misinterpreted rules, he said.
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