NEW DELHI: IT industry body Nasscom on Wednesday sought to play down the impact of US President Donald Trump’s H1-B visa executive order on the Indian IT sector.
Under a new executive order signed by US President Donald Trump, America is reviewing its visa programme for foreign workers, while ensuring a crackdown on visa abuse and frauds.
According to Nasscom, the proposed changes are forward-looking and non-specific. “Ours is one of the most highly regulated and scrutinised sectors in the economy, and Nasscom member firms abide by all applicable laws and regulations,” said R Chandrashekar, president, Nasscom.
A Nasscom statement said that “the current campaign to discredit our sector is driven by persistent myths, such as the ideas that H-1B visa holders are ‘cheap labour’ and ‘displace American workers’ who train their replacements, none of which is accurate”.
On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund in its World Economic Outlook 2017 had highlighted that weaker potential output growth across advanced economies could result in a possible increase in trade barriers that could impact the emerging market and developing economies. Even as Nasscom puts on a brave face, IT firms across the southern cities are worried. “It may not be affecting the firms who can skill up their staff, but small firms face cost and time concerns,” said an executive with a Bengaluru-based health services firm.
The recent decisions by Singapore and Australia following the US to curb the issue of certain types of visa have caused concern to the Indian government. But, one is yet to see a strong voice against the visa restrictions.
“The need is to help the small IT firms. The government needs to work closely with the industry,” said N K Goyal of CMIE.