US visa curbs can accelerate IT work to Bengaluru, says Nilekani

More people will set up centres in India and access local human capital, he says

Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani says that the proposed curbs on H1B visas that is given to attract technology talent to the US would help India, with more work coming to its tech hub Bengaluru.

"I think every time there has been any efforts to stem visas, the work on IT in places like Bengaluru has only grown. We will have more people set up centres here and access our human capital. I think it will just accelerate the work happening right here," said Nilekani, who built Infosys along with five colleagues including its founder N R Narayana Murthy.

The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa issued to hi-tech professionals by the US government to overcome  shortage of IT professionals in the US, Majority of the beneficiaries have been Indian nationals, who are sent by both Indian IT services firms as well as global major such as Google, Facebook, IBM and Accenture to meet their requirements in the US.

US President Donald Trump has warned of immigration restrictions, while a bill has been placed in the US congress to double minimum wages under the H1B visa to $100,000 a year. Trump, who won the elections on the back of an anti-immigration wave is trying to keep his promise.

Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog, said that Donald Trump will soon realise that a vast number of Indian's have contributed very significantly to the growth of America.

"America is what it is today because of open trade. It is able to attract the best talent from across the world. you can not have a dual policy by saying that when I grow I believe in open trade and when other grow you want to have closed trade," said Kant.

Kant says it will start hitting American's the minute you put trade embargos as the cost of inputs will rise enormously and consumers will find the goods so expensive.