BENGALURU: Tens of thousands of techies who are headed home, as a result of the US government banning the various non-immigration visas including the H-1B, may play a crucial role, strengthening the Indian start-up ecosystem. Analysts say, these professionals could join the existing new age companies or may even look at launching their own start-up with a clear focus on sustainability.
More than 70 per cent of the fresh H-1B visa applications (85,000) and those awaiting renewals (two lakh) are Indians and would have to wait at least till this year-end for employment opportunities in the US.
Given this scenario, a majority of these technology professionals are expected to head back to India, and there is also a likelihood that the companies which had employed them could place them outside the US, industry analysts told this publication.
Analysts also opine that the situation may be strikingly similar to the previous decade where a lot of engineers in the Bay area ended up founding their own ventures in the US and elsewhere. Take the case of Snapdeal, CEO and Co- Founder Kunal Bahl.
A business graduate from University of Pennsylvania, Bahl was denied an H-1B visa in 2007 and hence he decided to move back to his country of origin - India - where he founded India’s third largest e-commerce company, Snapdeal which has Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart as its rivals.
Bahl missed out working for Microsoft back then and had this message to convey to those techies whose American dream lied shattered due to H-1B visa ban. “India is the land of big opportunities. I didn’t know this 13 years ago when my H-1B visa was rejected, but haven’t regretted a moment since,” Bahl tweeted.
Hemant Mohapatra, partner at LightSpeed India, who had a flourishing 14 year-old career in the US while working for companies like Google, said that all it takes is the right intention and patience to make it big in the start-up industry.
“These are difficult times for the start-up founders, but the kind of opportunities in India are unmatchable,” Mohapatra said, adding he has already prepared a to-do list for the US returnees on how they could restart their career. According to Pareekh Jain, founder and lead analyst , EIIRTRend and Pareekh Consulting, many of the US returnees could look at launching start-ups.
“For now, sustainability and resource crunch could pose a problem as the community is facing the heat of Chinese money has stopped coming in. The pandemic situation has made their survival difficult. However there will be an impetus to this ecosystem as huge tech talent flows in from the US.”