IIT-Madras director Kamakoti Veezhinathan has reacted to President Donald Trump’s announcement of a $100,000 price tag on every new H-1B application, calling it a “blessing in disguise.” He suggested that this move would help boost research and innovation in India.
“I see this as a blessing in disguise and we must thank President Trump for it. We must take full advantage of this…” Veezhinathan told ANI.
Also Read: Netflix co-founder backs Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee: ‘No lottery, more certainty for high value jobs’
Explaining his statement, the director said, “The impact is two-fold-one, the students who go from here with an aspiration to work there might not go now, and as a director of IIT-Madras, I am happy that they will continue in India.”
“I believe as a country we have great opportunities for us to do research here… This is the time when students who want to go there (to the US) can stay here and contribute. In the last 5 years, at IIT-M, we have had only 5% of our population that is not in India. The craze for going to the US is gone here…” he added.
Donald Trump on the reason behind the visa fee hike:
In a statement, published by the White House, the US President said, “The H-1B nonimmigrant visa program was created to bring temporary workers into the United States to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor. The large-scale replacement of American workers through systemic abuse of the program has undermined both our economic and national security.”
Also Read: Man who returned to India claims Indian managers in US exploit H-1B workers, favour own community
He added that the entry of highly skilled foreign workers into the USA is restricted except for those whose petitions “are accompanied or supplemented by a payment of $100,000.”
How did India react to the fee hike?
“The government has seen reports related to the proposed restrictions on the US H1B visa program. The full implications of the measure are being studied by all concerned, including by Indian industry, which has already put out an initial analysis clarifying some perceptions related to the H1B program,” a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs said.
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