Bhubaneswar: US President Donald Trump has put his signature to an executive order that restricts federal agencies from hiring foreign workers, mostly on H-1B visas. The Indian IT companies, which could be seriously affected by the order, have termed it regressive.
Trump’s executive order follows the federally-owned Tennessee Valley Authority’s announcement that it will outsource 20 per cent of its technology jobs to companies based in foreign countries. This could cause more than 200 highly-skilled American tech workers in Tennessee to lose their jobs to low-wage, foreign workers hired on temporary work visas, according to a Livemint report.
While the immediate impact on Indian IT companies like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Ltd and Wipro Ltd will be minimal as they have already stepped up visa-independent local hiring in the US, the move has been termed by most IT companies as regressive and based on misinformation.
IT industry’s apex body Nasscom said the order is based on “misperceptions and misinformation”. “As the world opens up post the COVID-19 induced lockdowns, it is important for the U.S. to be able to access talent critical to the recovery phase. Measures that restrict access to talent will slow-down the recovery phase of US economy, jobs, innovation and R&D,” Nasscom said.
At present, 60 per cent of Infosys’ US employees are visa independent. “In the last 24 months, we have recruited more than 10,000 US nationals or permanent residents and significantly reduced our dependence on visa,” UB Pravin Rao, chief operating officer, Infosys said.
Even Wipro has hired nearly 70 per cent of its workforce in the US locally. “The intention is and continues to be a lot more contextually relevant to our customers. So we do not anticipate any disruptions in business due to the recent changes in visa norms,” Bhanumurthy BM, president & chief operating officer, Wipro said.
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