Q. What are the views of Trump and Clinton on H1-B visas?
Donald Trump — the man who is planning to build a wall to keep Mexicans out — has backed Indian-Americans, the largest chunk of foreign workers who’re beneficiaries of the visa programme.
But Mr Trump has been accused of much flip-flop. After months of campaigning against the visa plan the candidate said: “I’m softening the position because we have to have talented people in the country.”
This comes after he suggested raising wage paid to those who are holders of the H1-B visa. “Raising the prevailing wage paid to H-1Bs will force companies to give these coveted entry-level jobs to the domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in the U.S., instead of flying in cheaper workers from overseas,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mrs Clinton in an interview with Vox, said it was “heartbreaking” when American IT workers were forced to train their H-1B replacements. However, she has not yet proposed a solution.
As a result, observers have accused Clinton of downplaying the problem. “The job displacement isn’t just real, it is large in scale and scope. And its impacts are amplified by the offshoring of some of that work. So, on key facts here she is very misinformed,” Ron Hira, an associate professor of public policy at Howard University, was quoted as saying by Computer World.
Q. What’ll happen to Indian companies if Trump wins?
Despite his recent warm words aimed at Indian-Americans, analysts say a Trump win could cast a shadow on India’s IT fortunes due to policy changes in immigration and outsourcing. “An H-1B crackdown under Donald Trump would lower the profitability of Indian IT companies (due to higher wage costs) while potential restrictions on business process outsourcing (BPO) could also hurt revenues,” analysts at Nomura said in Trumping Asia, a report created in July.
Q. Don’t we have a strong IT portfolio? What’s our influence worldwide?
While IT services have provided bread-and-butter business for India’s top tech companies, they have wisely diversified into products and have managed strong portfolios of solutions that will sustain them as business process operations come under increasing pressure.
One of the most widely used core banking solutions is Finacle, developed by Infosys. First deployed by the State Bank of India in its foreign operations in 2004, Finacle now fuels banks across 84 countries and touches 500 million customers. It is offered by Infosys subsidiary EdgeVerve Systems Limited.
TCS, meanwhile, has always had a strong technology arm and the company’s products cover a wide spectrum including Med Mantra, a hospital automation system that encompasses patient care, resource management and information management, TCS Sevak, a self-service terminal platform that can be tweaked by multiple utilities to allow customers to pay bills using cash or credit cards and TCS Rapid Sigma — the world’s first certified solution on the SAP platform which helps organisations to implement Six Sigma efficiencies on the shop floor.
Wipro too has a strong portfolio of government-citizen service products covering Land Information Systems, computerising police departments including registering online FIRs, application for automating property valuation and registration, solutions for automating municipalities, automating State commercial tax departments, treasuries, health, water resources department etc.
Q. So, we’re just prone to Black Swan events?
Yes, the bigger you are the higher is your exposure. But first, what are Black Swan events? The term was first pioneered by writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb following the 2008 financial crisis.
A black swan event is an occurrence that deviates from the normal and is difficult to predict. World War 1 — which took months to plot — is not a Black Swan event. Many knew a war was being planned. Instead, 9/11 is a true black swan event.
As Indian IT grows, our exposure to these events increases. A terror attack on a major European city could have an unwelcome effect on Indian firms and their staff. During this period of uncertainty, Vishal Sikka’s wisdom should offer some comfort.
He has asked observers to ignore regular financial updates and keep their eyes on his firm’s five-year plan. In simpler terms, look ahead and do not be troubled by a balance sheet.
