India’s Infosys to hire 10,000 US workers as Trump targets outsourcing firms
India-based IT services firm Infosys has announced it will hire 10,000 Americans in the next two years. The move comes in response to accusations Indian firms are stealing US jobs due to outsourcing.
Infosys and its Indian competitors Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Wipro frequently use the American H1-B visa program, which grants temporary non-immigrant visas.
US President Donald Trump has ordered to review the program, as it allows India's booming IT sector to fly in foreigners to work in the US.
"When you think about it from a US point of view, obviously creating more American jobs and opportunities is a good thing," Infosys Chief Executive Vishal Sikka told Reuters.
The announced 10,000 new American jobs is only a fraction of Infosys' overall workforce of more than 200,000.
Indian politicians and figures in the IT industry have been urging Trump not to change the visa policy, as it could hurt India's $150 billion tech economy.
In recent years, Indian IT service firms have flooded the US visa lottery system with thousands of applications, putting them among the largest H1-B recipients annually.
"Top recipients of the H1-B Visa are companies like Tata, Infosys, Cognizant – they will apply for a very large number of visas, more than they get, by putting extra tickets in the lottery raffle, if you will, and then they'll get the lion's share of visas," a senior US administration official said earlier.
India's IT industry body Nasscom defended TCS and Infosys, saying the companies received only 8.8 percent of the total H1-B visas approved in 2015.
