Indian IT not H-1B dependent: Sikka
WASHINGTON: Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka has refuted the general impression that the Indian IT industry is overly dependent on H-1B visas for its business mode, amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on firms abusing the visa system to hire foreign workers on a low wage.
Sikka also believes that Indian IT companies need to grab the opportunities provided by new technologies like artificial intelligence in a big way to retain its global leadership edge in this fast-changing infotech environment.
“It is wrong to say and to think that we are dependent on H-1Bs. For example, if you look over the last 10 years, there are about 65,000, something like that, H-1B visas granted every year. That means over 10 years it is 650,000. And we collectively employ millions of people. Infosys alone has 200,000 employees. TCS close to double that number and so on,” Sikka said.
Indian IT firms, including Infosys, Wipro and TCS are expected to be hit by the Trump administration’s crackdown on firms abusing the visa system.
Sikka acknowledged that in the last decade and a half, there has been a lot of usage of the H-1B visas.
“But, ultimately it has always been about delivering value,” he asserted.
“The Indian IT industry has delivered a tremendous amount of value, especially in the US. But the nature of that delivery is changing . Just as in the past it was easier and it was possible to move jobs to India or to firms where large amount of work would happen in India. This kind of a global delivery model, or onsite, offshore and so forth... More and more of the work can now be done with automation.”
“So, we have to bring in a deep focus on embracing automation and AI. Every aspect of our life is being transformed by AI. And we have to embrace this.”