H-1B Visa issue might trouble India, says Arvind Subramanian

US, Australia and New Zealand had put curbs on movement of skilled professionals from India

Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian on Friday expressed his concern over the H-1B Visa issue, saying that if we start getting restrictions on the visa then it is going to be a problem for India.

"People think of the benefit of H-1B Visa as just Indians. Going and getting a job, getting foreign exchange. However, I think it is much bigger than that as when they get a job, there is circulatory advantage as they build India's reputation as a country," Subramanian said while speaking at the annual session of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi.

"Our IT services took off because India has a reputation for doing good stuff, which is established in H1B visa thing," he added while talking about the concerns faced by the Indian IT industry after Trump Administration's visa ban.

However, India has expressed concern over the rising trend of developed countries like the US, Australia and New Zealand to put curbs on the movement of skilled professionals from India.

That primarily puts Indian technology companies that send thousands of computer programmers and consultants to work at client sites abroad in the cross-hairs, hurting their ability to serve customers and organisations.

Talking about the rupee appreciation, the Chief Economic Advisor said that globalisation is still alive, as "we may not get rapid increase in trade in the world, but we are not getting rapid declines either. It's not a bleak scenario."

"We have real interest in our exports growing, since we are keeping the world market open. So we need to take leadership and should be willing in keeping our markets open," he added while mentioning on how India should respond to the scenario.