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TCS, Infosys got only 8.8% of H-1B visas, Nasscom rebuts US claim
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SME Times News Bureau | 25 Apr, 2017
IT industry's apex organisation has said that the two top companies --
TCS and Infosys -- got only 8.8 per cent of the H-1B visas for placement
of workers in the United States.
"Of the six Indian IT
companies, software majors TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) and Infosys
received 7,504 H-1B visas in FY 2015, which is 8.8 per cent of the total
H-1B visas," said the National Association of Software Services and
Companies (Nasscom) in a statement in Bengaluru.
The apex body's
clarification was in response to a US official last week accusing top
Indian IT firms TCS and Infosys of unfairly cornering majority of the
H-IB visas, by applying more in the lottery system.
Only six
Indian IT firms were among the top 20 recipients of the H-1B visas in
fiscal 2015 for their professionals to work in the US, said Nasscom.
US
President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week to reform
the H-1B visas norms by replacing the lottery system with a merit-based
immigration policy.
"Every reputable data source in the US has
documented a growing shortfall between the supply and demand for
computer science majors in the US workforce, especially in cutting-edge
fields such as cloud, big data, and mobile computing," asserted Nasscom.
The
US Department of Labor estimates that there will be 2.4 million
unfilled STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) jobs by
2018, with 50 per cent of the vacancies in IT-related positions.
"Indian
IT firms account for less than 20 per cent of the H-1B visas; although
Indian nationals get 71 per cent of them, testifying their high skill
levels, especially in the very coveted STEM skills category," stressed
Nasscom.
Noting that the annual number of Indian IT specialists
working on temporary visas for Indian IT service firms was 0.009 per
cent of the 158-million-member US workforce, a Nasscom survey also found
that the average wage for visa holders is $82,000 besides a fixed cost
of $15,000 incurred on each visa, including its fee and related
expenses.
"The average wage for visa holders is over 35 per cent
higher than the minimum prescribed exempt wage of $60,000," pointed out
the Nasscom statement.
All companies, including the US, Indian
and others, hire locally and bridge the skills gap by bringing in highly
skilled professionals to temporarily work in the US on H-1B and other
visas.
"Indian IT firms follow the global delivery model with US
and global counterparts working with 75 per cent of the Fortune 500
companies, to enable them become more competitive globally and creating
jobs locally in the US," reiterated the statement.
The Indian IT Industry is a "net creator" of jobs in the US and supports half a million jobs directly and indirectly.
Refuting
the American accusation, Infosys said it was committed to helping its
US clients leverage technology to transform their businesses, empower
their employees in new ways and become more competitive.
"To do
this, we invest in the local communities in which we operate, including
hiring local American top talent, bringing education and training to our
clients to shrink the skills gap and work with policymakers to foster
innovation within states and across the country," said Infosys in a
statement to IANS here.
Responding to reporters' queries on the
issue on Monday in New Delhi, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said
India is taking up its concerns with the US on the H-1B visa issue and
not about individual companies.
"No one is questioning America's
sovereign right to issue visas... we're only talking about their
commitments made in their understanding with us on issuing visas to
Indian professionals. There is no talk of individual companies," she
said.
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