India’s outsourcing giants have slammed a US bill that could double the cost of a work visa in a move seen as targeting high-profile Indian software exporters.
The measure would boost annual US visa costs for India’s outsourcing industry by US$200 million to US$250 million annually, the National Association of Software and Services Companies said.
S. Gopalakrishnan, chief executive of India’s second-largest outsourcer Infosys Technologies, told reporters late on Monday he was “saddened and disheartened” by the step and said the sector would lobby strongly against it.
India, which already holds at least 50 percent of the global outsourcing market, has become the world’s back office as Western firms set up call centers, number-crunching and software development outlets to cut costs.
But the US$50 billion industry also sends skilled workers to the US to develop software and direct projects for US clients.
The visa legislation, passed unanimously by the Senate last week, still must be approved by the US House of Representatives and signed into law by US President Barack Obama.
With anti-outsourcing anger stoked by high US unemployment, critics deride Indian outsourcing firms as “body shops” because they provide Indian professionals to US companies rather than employing Americans.
“We think it [the bill] goes against the notion of free trade and is discriminatory,” Wipro, India’s third-largest outsourcer, said in a statement.
The bill would raise by more than US$2,000 per application the US fee paid by any firm with more than 50 people in which over half the workforce has H-1B and L-1 visas earmarked for skilled foreign workers, industry officials say.
Top Indian outsourcing companies are expected to be hardest hit by the higher fees, including Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro and Mahindra Satyam.
The bill proposes to use proceeds from the fee hike to pay for the US government’s plans to boost border security.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS