H1B visa restrictions in US may turn out be to India’s gain

As the new political dispensation takes over in the United States, Donald Trump, the American President-elect, and Sen. Jeff Sessions, a strong frontrunner for attorney general’s position, are looking to revamp the H1B visa scheme in a big way. Some aver that it may be altogether be junked. These specific visas bring to America 100,000 highly skilled workers on contact each year.  For instance, in the year 2014, 86 percent of the H1B visas were given to Indian IT professionals. Majority of these visas are, therefore, have been granted to Indians in the last one decade or so. Washington Post quotes the federal guidelines as saying that these visas are given for positions for which qualified Native Americans cannot be found. Infosys, Wipro and TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) are said to have been the largest beneficiaries of this scheme in the past. But many Indians are reportedly saying that even if this visa program is curtailed, business executives and lawmakers in Hyderabad are said to be upbeat as employment opportunities are increasing there. If the US takes stringent steps against the H1B visa programme, they feel Indian economy would be the gainer ultimately. According to them, Hyderabad and Bangalore are housing major operations of large IT companies such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple and Amazon and so on. That is the reason many people who obtained H1B visas are said to have returned to India Amit Jain, the current president of Uber India, is said to be one of them. He was of the view that India now has a strong ecosystem in place. Jain added that India is witnessing a lot of recruitment. So, the general view is that if it is curtains for H1Bvisa programme in the US, India would become a hub of IT activity in the future.