To Escape Trump Wrath, Indian IT Firm Promises 10,000 Jobs For Americans

In a bid to minimize losses of its businesses in the US under the Donald Trump administration, India’s major IT firm Infosys has announced a new hiring plan under which it will provide jobs to 10,000 Americans in the next two years.

New Delhi (Sputnik) — The decision comes after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that he said would favor American companies for federal contracts and curbs the number of visas for foreign technical workers.

As part of this initiative, Infosys will open four new Technology and Innovation Hubs across the country focusing on cutting-edge technology areas, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, user experience, emerging digital technologies, cloud, and big data.

The first hub, which will open in Indiana in August 2017, is expected to create 2,000 jobs by 2021 for American workers and will help boost Indiana's economy.

"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," Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka said.

As a listed company on the New York Stock Exchange, Infosys has come under severe pressure from Trump's America First policy. A hiring plan for US nationals will help Infosys to retain ongoing projects in the US, as well as secure new ones. Earlier, the Indian government and outsourcing firms had been saying that shortage of qualified employees in the US forced them to hire from India.

"Every reputable data source in the US has documented a growing shortfall between the supply and demand for computer science majors in the US workforce, especially in cutting-edge fields such as cloud, big data, and mobile computing," said Indian IT industry's apex organization, NASSCOM.

Apart from Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), another Indian company, has come under strain from the Trump administration. However, NASSCOM said TCS and Infosys had got only 8.8% of the H-1B visas for placement of workers in the United States. "Of the six Indian IT companies, software majors TCS and Infosys received 7,504 H-1B visas in FY 2015, which is 8.8 percent of the total H-1B visas," said NASSCOM in a statement.

The average wage for visa holders is over 35 percent higher than the minimum prescribed exempt wage of $60,000, claimed Nasscom.