US Congressmen to discuss visa issue with IT minister today

A high-powered delegation led by a US Congressman is to meet Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday to discuss issues such as movement of skilled manpower and intellectual property rights.

The eight-member team is being led by Bob Goodlatte. The meeting comes at a time when the new administration in the US, under President Donald Trump, is proposing an overhaul of the popular H1B visa regime, raising concerns among Indian IT firms.

Industry association Nasscom met the delegation on Monday. “We have shared our views with them that the Indian IT industry is a large contributor to job creation in the US and we bring skills in areas where there is a huge skill deficit,” Nasscom President R Chandrashekhar told PTI.

Microsoft’s chief Satya Nadella is also scheduled to meet Prasad separately on Tuesday.

Indian IT companies are heavily dependent on the US market, which accounts for more than 60 per cent of the sector’s exports, and any clampdown in the visa regime could result in higher operational costs and shortage of skilled workers for the $110billion Indian outsourcing industry. Goodlatte, as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and other members play an important role in crafting policies around highskilled immigration and intellectual property in the US Congress.

The Indian side is expected to highlight and share information on direct jobs being created by Indian IT firms in the US, and their contribution in making the American economy competitive. Growth in the Indian IT sector has been slowing amid multiple headwinds such as changing technology landscape (automation and digitisation) and global events like Brexit, apart from the proposed tightening of H1B visa regime by the Trump administration.