US can’t ignore India: Nasscom on proposed H-1B visa curb
India’s apex IT industry lobby Nasscom has said the US just can’t afford to ignore India as it lacked the required skills.
The Nasscom made the observation amid diplomatic channels opening up in both the countries to discuss the issue of proposed curb on H-1B visa by the US and outsourcing work outside America by India.
The US grapples with the manpower challenges and faces serious STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) skill gap issues, said Shivendra Singh, vice president and head of global trade development, Nasscom.
Indian IT companies help the US in filling this gap, he said.
“There is a challenge on the supply side in the US. There is STEM-skill gap which has been acknowledged by all credible US sources. As per US department of labour, there will be 2.4 million unskilled STEM jobs by 2018 more than 50% in the computer and IT related area,” Singh said.
India is the biggest beneficiaries of H-1B visas in the world with about 58% (majority from US) of the total global outsourcing business coming to it.
The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa in the US, which allows American employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations.
But India will not be affected alone if there is any H-1B visa restriction, industry leaders said, even the US will face the manpower-related problem. Senior IT industry leaders in India dared US President Donald J Trump to follow Mahatma Gandhi’s Swadeshi Movement launched in early 1900s during pre-independence era in India, and ask Americans to burn freecredit cards and get ready to pay $150 for the same. Indians had then burnt the imported clothes and boycotted imported sugar as part of the Swadeshi movement.
“Trump should follow Gandhi who had called upon its people to boycott the garments made in English factories and gutted them. Trump too should tell people to boycott free credit cards and pay $150 and destroy free cards. He should ask the Americans to set their free cards ablaze,” said Nasscom V-C Raman Roy, who is also the CMD of the Quatrro Global Services.