A bill was passed in the US Congress by Democratic Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren of California on Tuesday requiring companies with workers on the H1B visa to increase at 100 percent on minimum wage. This by far, is the first proposal in the last twenty years.
IBM, Microsoft, and Accenture, along with all American Technology companies that will impact by the proposal. In the industry, most companies are sending Indian engineers on these visas to the US. Adding to the fuel of the situation, White House Spokesperson, said on Tuesday in a separate press statement that President Donald Trump is prospective to issue another Executive Order constraining H1B visa.
Business Standard quoted Gartner Director D.D. Mishra, "If this proposal is accepted, it will mean short-term pain for Indian IT services players, but in the long run they will figure out ways of circumventing it. This will also impact global technology players, so do expect some push-back from these companies against this Bill." There is a dramatic reaction on the BSE IT index as it went down to 2.96 percent to 9,586.34 when the congressional proposal was made.
JP Morgan's November study concluded with a statement by both analysts Viju K George and Anshul Agrawal where they wrote, "Indian nationals account for 69% of the total H1B visas issued; this percentage has been rising over the years helped by applications from Indian nationals from outside India and increasingly from MNCs using India as an important resource base."
For the 2015 record, there are 109,292 H1B visas approved applied by at least ten leading Information Technology firms and this accounts 23 percent of the data. This does not include the 18 percent contributed count coming from Accenture and IBM.
R Chandrasekhar, President of Nasscom in a press release said, "Our suggestion is that they should calibrate the conditions, keeping in mind the skills shortage in the US. Once that is done, they should not leave any loopholes in the rules being framed that leave some channels open for circumventing the limits."
The successive policies coming out since the Presidential induction did not just affect the US economy and geopolitics, but as well as the global stage on trade and information technology. The proposal of Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren from California and President Trump's plan is less beneficial for American Technology companies.
