TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged the United States to keep an open mind on admitting skilled Indian workers, in comments that pushed back against Republican President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ rhetoric on jobs.
Modi’s comments reflected concern that India’s $150 billion IT services industry would suffer if the United States curbs the visas, known as H-1B, it relies on to send its software experts to the United States on project work.
“The Prime Minister referred to the role of skilled Indian talent in enriching the American economy and society,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a statement after he met a bipartisan delegation of 26 members of the US Congress “He urged developing a reflective, balanced and far-sighted perspective on movement of skilled professionals,” the PMO said.
Indian nationals are by far the largest group of recipients of the 65,000 H-1B visas issued each year to new applicants under a cap mandated by Congress. Exemptions on the H-1B cap are available to up to 20,000 further applicants who have obtained a US master’s degree. The actual number of Indian nationals working in the United States under the H-1B programme is significantly higher, however, because many visas are rolled over.
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