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US President Donald Trump's decision to suspend certain categories of non-immigrant visas, including the H-1B, will help absorb India's knowledge workers locally and create another Silicon Valley in the country, a former top Indian-American CEO said, calling the move a "tragedy".

In an exclusive interview with ET, Dinesh Paliwal, former chairman and CEO of Samsung-owned audio giant Harman, said the new talent base in India will feed Indian and multinational companies and likely kickstart a shift of fortune from West to East. Paliwal, who retired from Harman last month, is on the board of four companies - Bristol Myers Squibb, Harman, Nestle and Raytheon.

Trumps decision to suspend all immigrant visas is a tragedy forced on a democracy which has thrived on immigration. This is a political decision to blindside Americans in this election year that it will lead to job growth locally, said Paliwal.

The decision will impact the American economy, which is running low on technology talent, he added. "America benefited greatly by being able to draw talent from around the world, making us more competitive, innovative and creating economic opportunity. These new restrictions wont necessarily stop the work but it may drive it off our shores and potentially inhibit investment and job creation in the US, a concern expressed by many American companies," Nisha Biswal, President of the U.S.-India Business Council told ET.

Such short-sighted and politically motivated policy will likely divert incredibly talented STEM educated workforce to other high growth countries and in the coming years; these hungry knowledge workers may not find America as attractive as before, the Stamford, Connecticut-based Paliwal added. STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Organic job creation in America is needed but it will take fundamental education policy reform. However, politicians dont gain instant gratification from long-term policy impact like education and immigration reform, Paliwal, who is originally from Agra, told ET. The move has also been criticised by almost all the top CEOs, including Googles Sundar Pichai and Apples Tim Cook.

Snapdeal's Kunal Bahl is a case-in-point Indian talent, who went on to launch a leading start-up in India after his visa was rejected. India is the land of big opportunities... I didn't know this 13 years ago when my H-1B visa was rejected, but haven't regretted a moment since, Snapdeal founder Kunal Bahl, who was slated to join Microsoft in Seattle, tweeted on Tuesday. Snapdeal today competes with the likes of Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart in India.

Despite the unemployment rate in the US technology sector falling below 3% and most global technology giants telling the US government that suspending the visas would hurt the economy, the Trump administration has gone ahead to suspend issuance of fresh visas till December 31. In 2019, seven of the top ten beneficiaries of the visa grants were US companies such as Google, Apple and Facebook that have been hiring Indian engineers. In contrast, Indian IT services firms have progressively reduced their dependency on the H-1B visa. Indian nationals account for 70% of the 85,000 work permits issued to high technology workers each year.

It is unfortunate and, in some sense, misguided and harmful to the US economy. It prevents not only our companies but thousands of other organizations from accessing critical talent from overseas UB Pravin Rao, chairman of IT industry lobby group Nasscom, told ET on Tuesday. Access to talent is very critical and very pivotal in a post-Covid-19 recovery, he had said.

Link:
Decision to suspend visa is a tragedy forced on a democracy which has thrived on immigration: Dinesh Paliwal - Economic Times