Important to separate sentiment from facts on H1B: Nasscom chairman

Amid the Donald Trump administration's heightened scrutiny of H1B work visas and uncertainty among workers, Nasscom Chairman Rishad Premji has said it is important to "separate the sentiment from the fact" regarding the visas.

"I think it is important to separate the sentiment from the fact, Premji told PTI in an interview here.

He asserted that of the 65,000 H1B visas issued every year, the Indian IT industry uses less than 10,000, adding that 70 per cent of visas go to Indians but they do not go to Indian companies. This is very, very important to appreciate.

He said it is also a fact that by 2020 there will be shortage of 2.4 million people, according to data from the Department of Labour, in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) talent in the US, and half of these will be in the computer and IT related services.

Premji stressed that it is important to keep in mind that there is a base of seven million people in the technology space in the US.

"We are talking about 10,000 people on a seven million strong base."
"Those kind of things create a lot of administrative overhead and cost and that we have got to find a way of addressing."
Premji said there is a huge dearth and shortage of technical talent in the US. "i m quite hopeful that we will continue to work as an industry body to address that."