Bengaluru: In a bid to woo the Trump administration, and offset criticism of outsourcing firms for "unfairly" taking jobs away from US workers, India’s second largest IT services company, Infosys announced it was hiring 10,000 American workers in the next 2 years.
“Infosys is committed to hiring 10,000 American technology workers over the next two years to help invent and deliver the digital futures for our clients in the United States,” said Vishal Sikka, CEO of Infosys.
The move to mitigate the impact of curbs on the H1B visa that is widely used by the Indian IT firms, and is afflicting the country’s $150 billion IT industry will see the Bengaluru-based firm said that it’s not only hiring American workers but also setting up four technology and innovation hubs across the US.
The first of the four innovation centres for new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will open in August in Indiana, the home state of US Vice-President Mike Pence, with the aim of creating 2000 jobs for American workers by 2021, boosting Indiana's economy.
The North American market accounted for over 60 per cent of Infosys' $10.2 billion revenue in 2016-17.
Will there still be an H1B curb?
Over the past few weeks, there has been a growing sentiment of protectionism across various markets, including the US, that are seeking to safeguard jobs for locals and raising the bar for foreign workers. The US accused Infosys and its larger rival, Tata Consultancy Services, of unfairly cornering the lion's share of the H-1B work visas by putting extra tickets in the lottery system. Every year, the US grants 65,000 H-1B visas while another 20,000 are set aside for those with US advanced degrees. In IT firms' defence, industry body Nasscom had said these two companies accounted for only 7,504 -- 8.8 per cent -- of the approved H-1B visas in 2014-15.
