Indian Businesses Seek Visas
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Tech group urges Congress to boost the number of worker visas after immigration bill fails.
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(InfoWorld) - Alumni of a major Indian university want the U.S. Congress to take separate action to passÂ H-1B visaÂ legislation that went down with the immigration reform bill thatÂ failed in CongressÂ last week. Members of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) alumni association, meeting for a three-day conference in Santa Clara, California, said Friday that they are hoping to get a separate vote on an immigration bill provision that would increase the number of visas granted to highly skilled engineers coming from abroad to work at U.S. technology companies. "Almost as soon as the bill died, there was talk of piecemeal moves to get parts of that bill passed," said Umang Gupta, chairman and CEO of Keynote Systems, a company that measures the technical performance of Web sites. He's also chairman of the board of PAN IIT, the alumni group hosting the conference, which has drawn close to 4,000 people. The legislation would increase the limit of H-1B visas to be granted every year to 115,000 from 65,000 today. Backers say the extra visas are needed because there aren't enough qualified U.S. engineers to do the work U.S. companies need done. Opponents say the visas just make it possible for U.S. companies to hire foreigners at lower wages than they would have to pay U.S. hires. The legislation would also continue to allow 20,000 visas per year to applicants who have advanced degrees from U.S. colleges and universities. Today, about half of the graduates of U.S. engineering schools are non-Americans, many of whom have to return to their home countries to find work when they should be allowed to work here and contribute to U.S. economic growth, said Pradeep Khosla, dean of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania. "The day this country limits the free flow of skilled immigrants coming into this country, that's the day we start going downhill," said Khosla. Another IIT alum, Yogen Dalal, managing director at Mayfield Fund, a venture capital firm, noted that in the early 1990s, some in Silicon Valley thought they would be overcome by the Japanese. But the success of valley companies like Google and Apple, which introduced its iPhone a week ago, shows it remains a center for innovation. "Wealth is being created by innovation right here in [Silicon Valley]. Economic value is being created here. The work force is just being redistributed," Dalal said. The H1-B discussion is happening against the backdrop of the loss of thousands of jobs in recent years, particularly in Silicon Valley, as companies outsourced work to lower-wage markets in countries like India. But as more work is done in India,Â wage inflationÂ has begun to narrow the pay gap between India and the U.S. And in some cases, Indian companies have begun moving jobs to the U.S., said Arjun Malhotra, chairman and CEO of Headstrong, an outsourcing consulting firm. "If you look at the issue today, it's not outsourcing, it's global sourcing. You go to wherever the best resources are available to do that job," said Malhotra. The Indian Institute of Technology was created in 1950, three years after India gained its independence from Great Britain. It has about 100,000 alumni, 25,000 of whom live and work in the U.S.
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Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is working to woo Japanese investors, hoping that a warming political relationship will add sparkle to lackluster economic ties.
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Working Western contracts in India isn't enough. Now they're outsourcing too.
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New Delhi, Dec. 29: If the Indian government has its way, tsunami-hit Thai and Indonesian hotels and tourism firms are likely to take another hit, this time round from Indian tour operators trying to lure away their clients.
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U.S. Military Contractors Have High Hopes for Sales on the Subcontinent
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Indian professionals, venture capitalists (VCs), and entrepreneurs of Indian origin helped promote India as an outsourcing destination, according to a study conducted for the World Bank Institute in Washington, D.C., by Evalueserve Inc., a business intelligence and research firm.
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The U.S. software industry is larger than the food processing industry in terms of revenue, according to an IT trade group that wants Congress to&#160;raise the annual cap on H-1B visas,&#160;give permanent residency to foreign nationals who graduate from U.S. colleges, and back trade policies that give companies unfettered access to global markets.
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Malaysia, which relies heavily on foreigners for menial work, has frozen the recruitment of workers from India, an official said Tuesday, in a move apparently linked to unrest among the country's ethnic Indian citizens
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Days after India&#39;s stock market hit an all-time high, hundreds of executives and policymakers from around the world gathered Sunday to explore business opportunities in one of the world&#39;s fastest-growing economies.
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Overseas relatives' visits could require bonds while tighter immigration rules would cut tourist visas
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India wants to explore possible free trade agreements with Japan, China and the United States, as negotiations on such deals with Southeast Asian countries progress, the commerce minister says.
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Don't put all your eggs in one basket India will likely remain the offshore king when it comes to firms farming out IT skills abroad, but businesses are increasingly looking to spread the risk by adopting several locations, according to Gartner.â¦
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged Indian computer software firms to set up offices and joint ventures in his country, promising tax breaks and government support.
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WASHINGTON -- American technology companies will lose highly skilled foreign workers to Indian and Chinese rivals if the country's work-visa program is not fixed, a Google executive warned Congress on Wednesday.
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Last year, an estimated 150,000 foreigners visited India for medical procedures, and the number is increasing at the rate of about 15 percent a year, according to a health care specialist at the Confederation of Indian Industries.
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Immigration officials have a message for employers hoping to hire foreign workers through the H1-B visa program for the fiscal year that began Friday: It's too late.