What will happen to the Indians especially the Indians depending on IT in USA is a big question. What will Trump do to them is another issue. Will he encourage them or will he send them back. Will it continue as it is ?
Donald Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, has lamented the fact that “two-thirds or three-quarters of the CEOs in Silicon Valley are from South Asia or from Asia.”
A tighter immigration policy will have a direct bearing on the majopr IT company earnings dependingn revenues from America.
The Indian IT sector exports IT services to the tune of $105 billion a year.
Around 2.8 million posts in the US are lying vacant due to shortage of STEM graduates and “Over the last five years, we have created 411,000 direct jobs in the US, contributed around $20 billion in local taxes, and invested around $2 billion.”
Under H-1B visas, 65,000 workers and another 20,000 graduate student workers are admitted to the US each year. But it does not ensure permanent residency. H-1B visas are assigned through a lottery once a year by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The timing couldn’t have been for more inappropriate for Indian IT. The sector has been under pressure for a good part of the current financial year (2016-17), and every major company is expected to close the current fiscal with single-digit growth in revenue.
The recent downward revision in revenue forecast is also partly due to the uncertainty following Britain’s decision to leave the European Union (Brexit) in June this year. Britain constitutes nearly half of the $30-billion of IT exports from India.
On January 20, when Donald Trump takes oath as the 45th President of the United States, the Indian information technology (IT) sector will brace itself for some unpleasant news, mainly in the form of a tighter immigration policy.
“I will direct the Department of Labor to investigate all abuses of visa that undercut the American worker,” Trump said in one of his speeches.
It may not be easy for Indians -IT anymore in USA.
U.Srinivas
Editor
