October 1, 2025 • 18 mins
President Donald Trump’s H-1B visa fee has sent shockwaves through India’s workforce, which makes up roughly 70% of recipients.
On today's Big Take Asia Podcast, host K. Oanh Ha and Bloomberg’s Sankalp Phartiyal unpack how the policy could disrupt careers, reshape global talent flows and shatter the American dream for tens of thousands of workers.
Read more: Why Trump Is Charging a $100,000 Fee for H-1B Visas
Trump’s $100,000 Visa Targets a $280 Billion India Success Story
Further listening: India Won’t Stop Buying Russian Oil. Now It’s Paying the Price.
Watch, from Originals: How an Army of Middlemen Game the US Work Visa System
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Ayush is an IT consultant in his early thirties from India.
He lives in the US with his wife, and he
told Bloomberg Sun called Fatial that they like it there.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
He and his wife have been in the US for
very many years. They work for NIGHTI Company, and they
love working for that company. The environment in that company
is great.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Last month, Ayusch was in India visiting family, but the
day before he was due to return to the US,
he woke up to a bunch of missed calls and
frantic text messages from.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Friends, friends saying where are you come back? Immediately? Did
you see the news?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Ayusch and his wife are recipients of one of the
most coveted visas in the world, the H one B
that allows highly skilled foreign nationals to live and work
in the United States, and on that morning, the news
was about a major overhaul of that program. The President
is said to add a new one hundred thousand dollars
fee for H ONEB visas in the latest one hundred
(01:05):
thousand dollars, more than ten times what the visa had
cost in the past. The news sent hundreds of thousands
of H one B visa holders worldwide into a spiral.
It wasn't clear who the new fee applied to or
whether the current visa holders like Ayush would be charged
upon re entering the US.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
If you know anyone who's on it one be in
India right now, tell them to border the flat as
soon as possible.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I'm so mad and frustrated right now. If you're currently
in US with the H one B visa working as
a pointer, do not leave this country.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
President Donald Trump's announcement of the new fees was especially
unsettling for the Indian community. That's because Indians make up
roughly seventy percent of H one B holders. Ayush didn't
want to speak to us on tape out of fear
that it would jeopardize his career, but he's agreed to
let Bloomberg sunkap Fartiel tell his story instead.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
He told me that he was in the line for
immigration just a few minutes before the deadline kicked in
on September twenty first. Thankfully, he is admitted in.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
For decades, the H ONEB program was a way to
address labor shortages in the US. The vast majority of
H ONEB holders work in the tech sector for the
likes of Meta Inphasis and Google's parent company Alphabet.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
A lot of very famous people in the US have
come to the US, and H one B Zylon Musk
being one of them, the current Google CEO, Alphabet CEO
Sunda Pichai.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
In the past and H one B visa would set
companies back several thousand dollars for the application fee and
subsequent costs. But as of September twenty first, any new
applications for the work visa will carry a one hundred
thousand dollars fee. Here's US Secretary of Commerce Howard Ludnik.
So the whole.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Idea is no more.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
All these big tech companies or other big companies train
foreign workers.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
They have to pay the government one hundred thousand dollars,
then they have to.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Pay the employee.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
So it's it's just non economic.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Suncope says. This was the last straw for our Yush
and his family. He's now decided to leave the US
and is looking for jobs in Europe.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
US is now not a place they want to be in.
This is not the fear that they want to live
with that will be kicked out or we won't be
admitted in He says that I'm not really sure. You know,
Trump is unpredictable. What if he wakes up tomorrow morning
with a cup of coffee, changes the rules and says, okay,
this rule applies to even existing H onebb's a holders.
I just do not want to live with that stress.
(03:33):
It's okay. I will earn less money somewhere else, but
at least I'll be happy.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
This is the Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm wanha.
Every week we take you inside some of the world's
biggest and most powerful economies and the markets, tycoons, and
businesses that drive this ever shifting region. Today, on the
show the one hundred thousand dollars Visa, what Trump's new
visa fee means for Indian talent and could the US's
(04:08):
loss be India's game. The H one B visa program
was introduced in nineteen ninety to address specific labor shortages.
It allows companies in the US to hire college educated
foreign workers for specialized jobs for up to six years.
Since H one B is a dual intent visa, an
(04:29):
employer can sponsor the same worker for a green card,
which grants them permanent residency even while the worker is
still on the H one B Bloomberg sankalp Fartial says
today more than sixty percent of H one B visas
are used by the tech industry.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
The US companies like Google and Microsoft and Amazon are
among the biggest users of H oneb's, but also Indian
outsourcers or IT services companies like Tata Consultancy Services or
Emphasis are big users. The way it works is that
companies see a requirement for specialized let's say, in this case,
(05:06):
engineering talent, and they don't seem to find them in
the US, so employers make the applications. There's a lottery
system every year, and once the lottery is taken out,
whoever gets their name in gets to go to the US.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
About eighty five thousand new HEV visas are issued every year.
Sixty five thousand of them bring in general talent from abroad.
The remaining twenty thousand are reserved for non US citizens
who received advanced degrees from American universities. Since twenty eleven,
roughly seventy percent of the visas approved each year have
gone to Indian born citizens. Sankop says, for a lot
(05:44):
of educated middle class Indians going to the US has
been the ultimate dream, the American dream.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
You know, like everybody else from my generation. I sat
for an engineering exam. Thankfully I did not get thro.
I would have made a terrible engineer. But common saying
in India that if you throw a rock up in
the air, it'd probably hit an engineer. We have so
many engineers and engining colleges here, and engineering was and
continues to be seen as a pathway to a better life,
(06:12):
as a pathway to go to the US, as a
means to get a green card or maybe settle in
the US, essentially a better lifestyle and a good career.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
It also meant they learned far more than they would
staying in India.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
If you look at the conversion rate of dollar to
the rupee, Indians would send money home and they would
make their savings and rupees, so effectively they're paid much more.
Someone with a master's degree and who's been in the
US on an H one B for about four years
could make anywhere between one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
to two hundred thousand dollars a year. The kind of
money that someone with that experience and the would make
(06:47):
would be in millions of rupees, but not as much
as somebody like that would make in the US.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
But the program has come under criticism in recent years.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Conservatives have criticized this program for taking away US jobs
for cheap labor, including from India, undercutting US jobs.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
In its statement announcing changes to the H one B
visa program, the White House said American workers were being
replaced with lower paid foreign labor and called it a
national security threat. The Trump administration also claimed some entry
LEVELHEB visa holders make about a third less than full
time traditional workers. That wasn't verified by Bloomberg, but a
(07:31):
Bloomberg investigation published earlier this year did find that US
banks and telecom companies used the visa program to hire
lower paid workers. They were able to do this indirectly
through staffing and outsourcing companies that have previously been able
to capture about half of the new visas allocated each year.
By introducing a high barrier to hiring foreign workers, the
(07:54):
hope is that companies would train and hire Americans instead,
but Sandhope says it's not year whether that will happen.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Not everybody is undercutting jobs. There may be few who
are undercutting American skilled workers, but the whole idea revolves
around the fact that America has a dearth of STEM
talent science, tech, engineering, and math, and Indians or Chinese
seem to be more skilled on those aspects. This is
(08:22):
a very conservative approach to say that these people are
taking away American jobs, because when these people go to
American companies, they're also creating more jobs. They're paying Social Security,
they're paying taxes, so that's fueling the economy as well.
The way to look at this is that this is
essentially putting breaks on a moving car that was doing
(08:44):
well for the US. And if you don't bring H
one B workers to the US to work for companies,
that means you're essentially raising the costs for American corporations
as well, because these people go there specifically to work
on the demand of American corporations. For Indian outsources, they
send these people to client sites. They're important and maintaining
(09:04):
client relationships, work for clients and sensitive projects.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
What potentially could be the ripple effects for Indian IT
firms like Infosys and tatas some of the biggest who
do use H one bs and as well as the
next tier of companies right the software services firms.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Software services companies in India are already struggling with muted growth.
They also have a new challenge, journey AI. So this
is another kick on the backside, if I can call
it that, in terms of how they will whether the storm.
They are considering sending fewer people. At the same time,
employers could be willing to pay that one hundred thousand
(09:40):
dollar fee. They really want skilled talent from India to
go to the US. But those are the ones that
are really, really smart, and those are the ones that
employers are willing to pay for. So there'll be a
certain reduction in the number of people that go to
the US. Will h one be alone uppend the entire
Indian IT industry, No, I don't believe it will.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
As the US raises barriers for foreign workers. Is the
American dream out of reach for Indians? And can India
or other countries capitalize on this opportunity to lure talent
(10:23):
for tens of thousands of Indian workers. The dream of
building a career in the United States may be slipping away,
but sanjap Partial says new opportunities are opening up elsewhere.
Could the policy also unintentionally in some ways benefit India
by retaining more skilled workers here domestically instead of them
(10:44):
going overseas.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
It's a theory, It's a good theory, but not likely.
It all depends on whether India seizes the moment to
bring out policies that could help retain talent, because one
of the biggest reasons Indian talent went outside was more money.
But all so stable policy, good working environment, the chance
to work in a global company. If India is able
(11:07):
to give its talent good product and services jobs, create
a global work environment, maintain that healthy work life balance. Yes,
we could retain some talent, but one could argue that
good talent will always find its way to find the
best job.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I want to talk a little bit about the on
the ground effect, you know, impact as well. I mean,
the H one B program has been a part of
this market success for a lot of Indians being able
to work in the US. What does this mean for
you know, those people and their kind of hopes and dreams.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
I've been speaking to some of the people who've gone
to the US on each one BS, even some students.
There is a sense of extreme nervousness. I think the
constant flip flop on policy, which wasn't the case in
the US earlier, is something that terrifies people and makes
them extremely nervous. And so I think the whole idea
that US is a stable place to work for foreigners
(12:04):
or immigrants, that ideas just shattered.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Some countries are already moving to capitalize on the chaos.
After Trump announced the changes to the H and B program,
the UK said Britain will make it easier for companies
to bring in top talent.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Canada, UK, Australia and Eastern Europe are emerging as new
tech and outsourcing hubs, and even though salaries there could
be lower than in the Silicon Valley or the US
in general, these new hubs will be able to draw
Indian talent because of good working conditions and competitive pay packages.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Meanwhile, Germany's ambassador to India released a video message encouraging
skilled Indian professionals to consider Germany as their next destination.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Highly skilled Indians are welcoming Germany. Our migration policy works
a bit like a German car. It's reliable, it is modern,
it is predictable, it will go in a straight line.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
And while this may look like a golden opportunity to
attract foreign talent, Sankop says one country could end up
missing out India itself. The country is grappling with rising
use unemployment and an underemployment crisis.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
We have reported instance of college workers sitting on the bench.
They've been hired by companies, but they're not actively involved
in projects or day to day work even though they
are hired on paper.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
And why is that.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
If I talk specifically about IT companies, the business of
IT companies depends on work given by clients. So if
because the war in Europe, or because of the war
in the Middle East or sanctions on Russia, if companies
are pausing spence, then that directly translates to lesser work
for Indian outsources, which means that the people they've hired
(13:52):
from colleges have to sit back till the time they're
called for work by the Indian companies. You could call
it disguised unemployment. They're hired on pay, but they're not
getting any salaries or they're not getting any work as yet.
And also AI is a disruptor. AI will disrupt more
and more work, which means that all of the college
graduates in engineering may not immediately get jobs.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Another factor that could discourage skilled Indian professionals from staying
in India the work culture.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Our majority of businesses in India are family run. These
are not professionally run businesses, which essentially boils down to
a very toxic workplace situation or a non professional setup.
And you don't have the semblance of a work life balance.
So the idea of working in a global cooperation comes
(14:41):
with its compensation benefits as well as good work life balance,
a global culture, and I think that's what's lacking in
Indian companies.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Still, Sandcops says the ripple effects of H and B
visa changes might help India retain some of its talent,
at least for now. India has the third largest startup
ecosys in the world, trailing only the US and China.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
If American companies continue to push hard on these global
capability centers, you could make the case that a lot
of Indian talent would otherwise go to the US on
H one bes could end up working in India with
American corporations in their innovation in their R and D centers.
Right now, everything is pretty volatile. The situation is still emerging,
but in the long run, I think things should settle
(15:25):
and it shouldn't be that bad.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
There have been a series of blows to India from
US policy. First there were moves to restrict student visas.
Then India got hit with fifty percent tariffs, which is
among the highest of countries, and now of course h
one B's. For many years, India was seen as a
partner for the US in Asia. Do Indians now feel
like the relationship is taking this dramatic downward.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Term, Yes, of course. I mean it's quite visible to
Indians that America, which had seen India as a friend
over the decades, the sort of camaraderie that existed between
President Trump and Prime Minister Modi is definitely fading because
we've seen these punitive measures in India. And when I
(16:10):
talk to sources in the tech industry, when I talk
to political people, there's always a sense that the US
has not been kind to India and has been extremely
harsh and has not valued the strategic relationship that it wanted,
that the two countries wanted. I think the government certainly
(16:33):
is recalibrating its US policy, but Indians in general continue
to see US as a destination. Indian skill talent continues
to view US companies as a destination for their careers.
So to the general public, US and its leure is
still there.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Could this turn into a moment for India, for India
to rise, to really find a way to change its
culture to make it more appealing for the most educated,
the most talented to stay here in India and not
go overseas for opportunity.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
I would certainly hope so, But I could have said
that at any point in the last twenty years. It
really depends on whether India's able to create the kind
of global environment that it's skilled professionals need, Whether India
is able to create that kind of physical as well
as digital infrastructure that global professionals need. Whether India is
(17:31):
able to give global companies the ease of doing business
that they find in China or in Vietnam. It really
depends on how the government wants to seize this opportunity.
Can we do better and turn India into a global
workplace bigger than it already is, Yes we can. Is
there room for improvement, yes, But you know, all of
(17:53):
the world's biggest corporations are already here, and I think
we are very much near to grabbing this moment and
making it ours.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
This is The Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm wanha.
To get more from The Big Take and unlimited access
to all of Bloomberg dot Com, subscribe today at Bloomberg
dot com slash podcast Offer. If you liked the episode,
make sure to subscribe and review The Big Take Asia
wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps people find
the show. Thanks for listening, See you next time.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Ayush is an IT consultant in his early thirties from India.
He lives in the US with his wife, and he
told Bloomberg Sun called Fatial that they like it there.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
He and his wife have been in the US for
very many years. They work for NIGHTI Company, and they
love working for that company. The environment in that company
is great.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Last month, Ayusch was in India visiting family, but the
day before he was due to return to the US,
he woke up to a bunch of missed calls and
frantic text messages from.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Friends, friends saying where are you come back? Immediately? Did
you see the news?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Ayusch and his wife are recipients of one of the
most coveted visas in the world, the H one B
that allows highly skilled foreign nationals to live and work
in the United States, and on that morning, the news
was about a major overhaul of that program. The President
is said to add a new one hundred thousand dollars
fee for H ONEB visas in the latest one hundred
(01:05):
thousand dollars, more than ten times what the visa had
cost in the past. The news sent hundreds of thousands
of H one B visa holders worldwide into a spiral.
It wasn't clear who the new fee applied to or
whether the current visa holders like Ayush would be charged
upon re entering the US.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
If you know anyone who's on it one be in
India right now, tell them to border the flat as
soon as possible.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I'm so mad and frustrated right now. If you're currently
in US with the H one B visa working as
a pointer, do not leave this country.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
President Donald Trump's announcement of the new fees was especially
unsettling for the Indian community. That's because Indians make up
roughly seventy percent of H one B holders. Ayush didn't
want to speak to us on tape out of fear
that it would jeopardize his career, but he's agreed to
let Bloomberg sunkap Fartiel tell his story instead.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
He told me that he was in the line for
immigration just a few minutes before the deadline kicked in
on September twenty first. Thankfully, he is admitted in.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
For decades, the H ONEB program was a way to
address labor shortages in the US. The vast majority of
H ONEB holders work in the tech sector for the
likes of Meta Inphasis and Google's parent company Alphabet.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
A lot of very famous people in the US have
come to the US, and H one B Zylon Musk
being one of them, the current Google CEO, Alphabet CEO
Sunda Pichai.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
In the past and H one B visa would set
companies back several thousand dollars for the application fee and
subsequent costs. But as of September twenty first, any new
applications for the work visa will carry a one hundred
thousand dollars fee. Here's US Secretary of Commerce Howard Ludnik.
So the whole.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Idea is no more.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
All these big tech companies or other big companies train
foreign workers.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
They have to pay the government one hundred thousand dollars,
then they have to.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Pay the employee.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
So it's it's just non economic.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Suncope says. This was the last straw for our Yush
and his family. He's now decided to leave the US
and is looking for jobs in Europe.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
US is now not a place they want to be in.
This is not the fear that they want to live
with that will be kicked out or we won't be
admitted in He says that I'm not really sure. You know,
Trump is unpredictable. What if he wakes up tomorrow morning
with a cup of coffee, changes the rules and says, okay,
this rule applies to even existing H onebb's a holders.
I just do not want to live with that stress.
(03:33):
It's okay. I will earn less money somewhere else, but
at least I'll be happy.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
This is the Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm wanha.
Every week we take you inside some of the world's
biggest and most powerful economies and the markets, tycoons, and
businesses that drive this ever shifting region. Today, on the
show the one hundred thousand dollars Visa, what Trump's new
visa fee means for Indian talent and could the US's
(04:08):
loss be India's game. The H one B visa program
was introduced in nineteen ninety to address specific labor shortages.
It allows companies in the US to hire college educated
foreign workers for specialized jobs for up to six years.
Since H one B is a dual intent visa, an
(04:29):
employer can sponsor the same worker for a green card,
which grants them permanent residency even while the worker is
still on the H one B Bloomberg sankalp Fartial says
today more than sixty percent of H one B visas
are used by the tech industry.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
The US companies like Google and Microsoft and Amazon are
among the biggest users of H oneb's, but also Indian
outsourcers or IT services companies like Tata Consultancy Services or
Emphasis are big users. The way it works is that
companies see a requirement for specialized let's say, in this case,
(05:06):
engineering talent, and they don't seem to find them in
the US, so employers make the applications. There's a lottery
system every year, and once the lottery is taken out,
whoever gets their name in gets to go to the US.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
About eighty five thousand new HEV visas are issued every year.
Sixty five thousand of them bring in general talent from abroad.
The remaining twenty thousand are reserved for non US citizens
who received advanced degrees from American universities. Since twenty eleven,
roughly seventy percent of the visas approved each year have
gone to Indian born citizens. Sankop says, for a lot
(05:44):
of educated middle class Indians going to the US has
been the ultimate dream, the American dream.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
You know, like everybody else from my generation. I sat
for an engineering exam. Thankfully I did not get thro.
I would have made a terrible engineer. But common saying
in India that if you throw a rock up in
the air, it'd probably hit an engineer. We have so
many engineers and engining colleges here, and engineering was and
continues to be seen as a pathway to a better life,
(06:12):
as a pathway to go to the US, as a
means to get a green card or maybe settle in
the US, essentially a better lifestyle and a good career.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
It also meant they learned far more than they would
staying in India.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
If you look at the conversion rate of dollar to
the rupee, Indians would send money home and they would
make their savings and rupees, so effectively they're paid much more.
Someone with a master's degree and who's been in the
US on an H one B for about four years
could make anywhere between one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
to two hundred thousand dollars a year. The kind of
money that someone with that experience and the would make
(06:47):
would be in millions of rupees, but not as much
as somebody like that would make in the US.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
But the program has come under criticism in recent years.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Conservatives have criticized this program for taking away US jobs
for cheap labor, including from India, undercutting US jobs.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
In its statement announcing changes to the H one B
visa program, the White House said American workers were being
replaced with lower paid foreign labor and called it a
national security threat. The Trump administration also claimed some entry
LEVELHEB visa holders make about a third less than full
time traditional workers. That wasn't verified by Bloomberg, but a
(07:31):
Bloomberg investigation published earlier this year did find that US
banks and telecom companies used the visa program to hire
lower paid workers. They were able to do this indirectly
through staffing and outsourcing companies that have previously been able
to capture about half of the new visas allocated each year.
By introducing a high barrier to hiring foreign workers, the
(07:54):
hope is that companies would train and hire Americans instead,
but Sandhope says it's not year whether that will happen.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Not everybody is undercutting jobs. There may be few who
are undercutting American skilled workers, but the whole idea revolves
around the fact that America has a dearth of STEM
talent science, tech, engineering, and math, and Indians or Chinese
seem to be more skilled on those aspects. This is
(08:22):
a very conservative approach to say that these people are
taking away American jobs, because when these people go to
American companies, they're also creating more jobs. They're paying Social Security,
they're paying taxes, so that's fueling the economy as well.
The way to look at this is that this is
essentially putting breaks on a moving car that was doing
(08:44):
well for the US. And if you don't bring H
one B workers to the US to work for companies,
that means you're essentially raising the costs for American corporations
as well, because these people go there specifically to work
on the demand of American corporations. For Indian outsources, they
send these people to client sites. They're important and maintaining
(09:04):
client relationships, work for clients and sensitive projects.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
What potentially could be the ripple effects for Indian IT
firms like Infosys and tatas some of the biggest who
do use H one bs and as well as the
next tier of companies right the software services firms.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Software services companies in India are already struggling with muted growth.
They also have a new challenge, journey AI. So this
is another kick on the backside, if I can call
it that, in terms of how they will whether the storm.
They are considering sending fewer people. At the same time,
employers could be willing to pay that one hundred thousand
(09:40):
dollar fee. They really want skilled talent from India to
go to the US. But those are the ones that
are really, really smart, and those are the ones that
employers are willing to pay for. So there'll be a
certain reduction in the number of people that go to
the US. Will h one be alone uppend the entire
Indian IT industry, No, I don't believe it will.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
As the US raises barriers for foreign workers. Is the
American dream out of reach for Indians? And can India
or other countries capitalize on this opportunity to lure talent
(10:23):
for tens of thousands of Indian workers. The dream of
building a career in the United States may be slipping away,
but sanjap Partial says new opportunities are opening up elsewhere.
Could the policy also unintentionally in some ways benefit India
by retaining more skilled workers here domestically instead of them
(10:44):
going overseas.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
It's a theory, It's a good theory, but not likely.
It all depends on whether India seizes the moment to
bring out policies that could help retain talent, because one
of the biggest reasons Indian talent went outside was more money.
But all so stable policy, good working environment, the chance
to work in a global company. If India is able
(11:07):
to give its talent good product and services jobs, create
a global work environment, maintain that healthy work life balance. Yes,
we could retain some talent, but one could argue that
good talent will always find its way to find the
best job.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I want to talk a little bit about the on
the ground effect, you know, impact as well. I mean,
the H one B program has been a part of
this market success for a lot of Indians being able
to work in the US. What does this mean for
you know, those people and their kind of hopes and dreams.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
I've been speaking to some of the people who've gone
to the US on each one BS, even some students.
There is a sense of extreme nervousness. I think the
constant flip flop on policy, which wasn't the case in
the US earlier, is something that terrifies people and makes
them extremely nervous. And so I think the whole idea
that US is a stable place to work for foreigners
(12:04):
or immigrants, that ideas just shattered.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Some countries are already moving to capitalize on the chaos.
After Trump announced the changes to the H and B program,
the UK said Britain will make it easier for companies
to bring in top talent.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Canada, UK, Australia and Eastern Europe are emerging as new
tech and outsourcing hubs, and even though salaries there could
be lower than in the Silicon Valley or the US
in general, these new hubs will be able to draw
Indian talent because of good working conditions and competitive pay packages.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Meanwhile, Germany's ambassador to India released a video message encouraging
skilled Indian professionals to consider Germany as their next destination.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Highly skilled Indians are welcoming Germany. Our migration policy works
a bit like a German car. It's reliable, it is modern,
it is predictable, it will go in a straight line.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
And while this may look like a golden opportunity to
attract foreign talent, Sankop says one country could end up
missing out India itself. The country is grappling with rising
use unemployment and an underemployment crisis.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
We have reported instance of college workers sitting on the bench.
They've been hired by companies, but they're not actively involved
in projects or day to day work even though they
are hired on paper.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
And why is that.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
If I talk specifically about IT companies, the business of
IT companies depends on work given by clients. So if
because the war in Europe, or because of the war
in the Middle East or sanctions on Russia, if companies
are pausing spence, then that directly translates to lesser work
for Indian outsources, which means that the people they've hired
(13:52):
from colleges have to sit back till the time they're
called for work by the Indian companies. You could call
it disguised unemployment. They're hired on pay, but they're not
getting any salaries or they're not getting any work as yet.
And also AI is a disruptor. AI will disrupt more
and more work, which means that all of the college
graduates in engineering may not immediately get jobs.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Another factor that could discourage skilled Indian professionals from staying
in India the work culture.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Our majority of businesses in India are family run. These
are not professionally run businesses, which essentially boils down to
a very toxic workplace situation or a non professional setup.
And you don't have the semblance of a work life balance.
So the idea of working in a global cooperation comes
(14:41):
with its compensation benefits as well as good work life balance,
a global culture, and I think that's what's lacking in
Indian companies.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Still, Sandcops says the ripple effects of H and B
visa changes might help India retain some of its talent,
at least for now. India has the third largest startup
ecosys in the world, trailing only the US and China.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
If American companies continue to push hard on these global
capability centers, you could make the case that a lot
of Indian talent would otherwise go to the US on
H one bes could end up working in India with
American corporations in their innovation in their R and D centers.
Right now, everything is pretty volatile. The situation is still emerging,
but in the long run, I think things should settle
(15:25):
and it shouldn't be that bad.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
There have been a series of blows to India from
US policy. First there were moves to restrict student visas.
Then India got hit with fifty percent tariffs, which is
among the highest of countries, and now of course h
one B's. For many years, India was seen as a
partner for the US in Asia. Do Indians now feel
like the relationship is taking this dramatic downward.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Term, Yes, of course. I mean it's quite visible to
Indians that America, which had seen India as a friend
over the decades, the sort of camaraderie that existed between
President Trump and Prime Minister Modi is definitely fading because
we've seen these punitive measures in India. And when I
(16:10):
talk to sources in the tech industry, when I talk
to political people, there's always a sense that the US
has not been kind to India and has been extremely
harsh and has not valued the strategic relationship that it wanted,
that the two countries wanted. I think the government certainly
(16:33):
is recalibrating its US policy, but Indians in general continue
to see US as a destination. Indian skill talent continues
to view US companies as a destination for their careers.
So to the general public, US and its leure is
still there.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Could this turn into a moment for India, for India
to rise, to really find a way to change its
culture to make it more appealing for the most educated,
the most talented to stay here in India and not
go overseas for opportunity.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
I would certainly hope so, But I could have said
that at any point in the last twenty years. It
really depends on whether India's able to create the kind
of global environment that it's skilled professionals need, Whether India
is able to create that kind of physical as well
as digital infrastructure that global professionals need. Whether India is
(17:31):
able to give global companies the ease of doing business
that they find in China or in Vietnam. It really
depends on how the government wants to seize this opportunity.
Can we do better and turn India into a global
workplace bigger than it already is, Yes we can. Is
there room for improvement, yes, But you know, all of
(17:53):
the world's biggest corporations are already here, and I think
we are very much near to grabbing this moment and
making it ours.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
This is The Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm wanha.
To get more from The Big Take and unlimited access
to all of Bloomberg dot Com, subscribe today at Bloomberg
dot com slash podcast Offer. If you liked the episode,
make sure to subscribe and review The Big Take Asia
wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps people find
the show. Thanks for listening, See you next time.
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