An influential Indo-US business advocacy group has called for expanding the number of the work visas granted to foreign technology professionals every year.
“One of the areas where the US has to look at is H-1B. How do you expand that? By limiting the numbers (of H-1B visas), it does have an impact on the US companies. By making it expensive, it does have an impact on US companies,” Mukesh Aghi, president of the US India Business Council (USIBC) told PTI.
Under Congressional-mandated existing laws, the United States every year grants 60,000 H-1B visas and another 20,000 to those foreign professionals who get higher degrees from a US university.
This year the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received thousands of more applications than the number of H-1B visas it can grant, forcing it to decide on the successful applicants through a computerised draw of lots.
Documented research and statistics have proven time and again that H-1B is one of the major drivers of US economy, in particular in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship.
While H-1B is not a major issue this presidential election cycle, but New York-based Real Estate tycoon Donald Trump, who is leading Republican presidential polls, came out with recommendation to increase the salary for H-1B visas, which along with his other proposals would make it tough for US companies to hire foreign workers on H-1B visas.
Indian technology professionals are one of the major beneficiaries of H-1B visas. For quite some time leading US technology companies including Microsoft, Facebook and Google have been calling to do away with the limit on H-1B visas.In response to a question, Aghi dismissed the recent proposal of Trump.
“Politicians make proposals just to attract votes. Our position is that Indian workers who come on H-1B visa do bring efficiency and competency to US companies,” said Aghi, who before joining USIBC was Member of Board and CEO of Larsen and Toubro InfoTech.
“We support H-1B and we would like to expand it,” he said.
When asked about Trump’s proposal to hike the basic salary of H-1B visa proposals, the USIBC president, said no one can “dictate” corporations what kind of salary it needs to pay to its employees. “Because it is not business of the government to be in business,” he asserted, adding that it should be decided by market forces.
“If India does the same thing that you got to pay minimum salary to US people coming to India then it does have an impact on US cost structure. It can be reciprocal. Not just with India, it can be with any other country,” he observed.
What exactly was Dr Aghi’s last date/month as CEO of L&T Infotech (Services Cluster)? There was this piece of news (Oct-Nov, 2014), that to the best of my knowledge was exclusive to ToI and ET . I have not seen this news in any other online publications of Live Mint, Business Standard, Financial Express, Hindu Business Line, CXO Today etc. Please refer, The Times of India article- Oct 22, 2014 – L&T Infotech joint CEOs quit Oct 22 2014 -. Excerpts: “The joint CEOs of L&T Infotech, Vivek Chopra and Mukesh Aghi, quit the company last week after two years at the helm –The reasons for the exit are not clear, but analysts noted that the leadership in the nearly $1-billion L&T Infotech had become very top heavy. Above the joint CEOs was V K Magapu, the managing director; and in May this year, the company appointed former Infosys senior vice-president Chandrashekar Kakal as COO”. Please refer, The Economic Times article – Nov 6, 2014 – L&T Info to hire joint CEOs by month end; but all decisions funnelled through AM Naik – Excerpts – “Joint CEOs Vivek Chopra and Mukesh Aghi leave the company last month, two years after they were appointed– To be sure, both Chopra and Aghi were not true CEOs in that they both reported to managing director VK Magapu, who then reported into Naik. Magapu was brought into the company in September 2012 after he retired from L&T.” Eentry-exit of CXOs information usually affects share prices of company, L&T stock after this news up by 3% on 15 Jan after a along haul!—————————————————How about Dr Aghi’s well studied plans/targets of taking LnT Infotech to $1 billion revenue club by 2013 end and $3 billion in next 2-3 years i.e. 2015-16? As per recent report LnT Infotech is expecting to be in $1 billion (in revenues) club by mid 2016. Should we expect some credibility from business leaders like Dr Aghi. Where he has taken Steria India headcount and revenues as CEO, where he has taken LnT Infotech (services cluster) headcount and revenue as CEO of LnT Infotech (Services Cluster)? His exits from both these firms were quite shrouded, why he did not reach out to media to discuss about his tenures and exit at LnT Infotech and reasons why he failed to achieve the set target? Should we expect some transparency, accountability and credibility from business leaders? When Dr Aghi says he is bullish about India-US trade petition of $500 billion can it be taken at face value with seriousness? What is Dr Aghi’s breath taking performance CEO of Steria India and CEO of LnT Infotech (Services Cluster) that made him eligible for such important position with a substantial bearing on India-US trade potential of $500 billion?,??