BENGALURU: IT/BT Minister Priyank Kharge has acknowledged that suspension of IT companies, including Infosys and Capgemini, from utilising the United States of America’s (USA) green card programme for its employees could have complex and far-reaching consequences for IT professionals across the country.
Kharge said, “Suspension of the Permanent Labour Certification Programme for major IT outsourcing companies, a critical step through which foreign workers, including H-1B visa holders, pursue employment-based green cards could have consequences for India that are both complex and potentially far-reaching.”
He termed the development potentially a “headwind” for the traditional Indian IT outsourcing model, for which the move “could mean higher operating costs in the US, greater difficulty in retaining skilled employees and reduced flexibility in deploying Indian professionals onsite.”
Priyank says US move to benefit India
Kharge believes that with cessation of Indian-origin employees moving to the US for work, “work” itself might find moving to the country through the establishment of global capability centres (GCCs) and other avenues. “If moving Indian engineers to the US becomes difficult and expensive, more high-value work may increasingly move to where the talent is available.
This could accelerate the expansion of global capability centres, bring more global R&D, engineering and product mandates to India, increase domestic demand for senior technology talent and strengthen India’s position not merely as the world’s prominent IT service provider, but as a global centre for product development, AI, deep tech and innovation,” he said.
