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Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s proposal on changing H-1B visa laws is seen by the Indian IT industry largely as ‘rhetoric’, similar to previous US presidential elections.
Trump has come out with a plan that involves increasing prevailing wage estimates for math, sciences and technology jobs that can make those jobs high-paying. This, according to him, will stop companies from hiring foreign talent and would instead hire Americans.
The $130-billion Indian IT industry seems not overtly perturbed with this proposal and opines that this is mere posturing. “I see the stances taken by candidates as more an attention capturing mechanism and confusing too,” KK Natarajan, CEO of Mindtree, told BusinessLine .
‘Just a speculation’Shivendra Singh, Vice-President - Global Trade Development of Nasscom, said this is just a speculation and at any election time these are some of the issues that pop up.
Industry watchers pointed out that politicians have been quick to pounce on some recent allegations against Indian IT exporters on issues such as visa frauds.
“Firstly, there is no conclusive evidence that H-1B visas are being misused and secondly there are some voices within the Republicans who have plans to triple the yearly visas from 65,000 to 195,000, said Natarajan.
In a recent interaction, Wipro COO Abid Ali Neemuchwala said the company does not see any major outcomes arising out of the outsourcing debate.
The Indian IT industry has got the backing of tech honchos such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, along with Bill Gates and Marissa Mayer for expanding the H-1B visa programme. Bulk of the 65,000 visas is with Indian software exporters.
The Indian IT industry is also perturbed by the fact that these go against the grain of free market economics. Nasscom in the past has repeatedly asserted that there are local jobs — both direct and indirect that get created, apart from tax revenues and it should be merely looked through the ‘taking away jobs’ lens.
Nasscom points to the fact that unemployment in the technology industry is in low single digits and hence this issue is blown out of proportion.
Then there is an issue of not sufficient talent that is available to do tech jobs. “These are not blue-collar jobs where minimal human skills are sufficient but require specific capabilities,” said Natarajan.
‘No cheap labour’Also, there is no longer cheap Indian labour as companies have to pay compatible wages, pointed out Ramesh Loganathan, Vice-President and Managing Director, Progress Software.
While the industry is smug about all this, a lot of movements are gaining ground, which calls for abolishing H-1B visas.
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