Infosys Likely to Ramp Up US Hiring, End Reliance on Indian Techies Even After Trump Exit: Report
28-January-2021

Infosys Ltd. is planning to ramp-up hiring in the US and Europe, after immigration curbs introduced by Donald Trump forced them to restructure their traditional reliance on Indian techies. Asia's No. 2 IT services company has recruited 2,000 college graduates outside of India in the past 12 months and will only hire more over the next year, Chief Executive Officer Salil Parekh told Bloomberg.

The increased hiring is planned despite expectations that President Joe Biden will adopt a more relaxed view on immigration in general than his predecessor. In an interview to Bloomberg, Parekh said, "We've taken a localization approach. That helps us build a more resilient approach for the future which can work for different policies, different scenarios. That's our hope. As new policies emerge, we have the building blocks which can work in multiple scenarios."

Infosys, larger rival TCS and their American peers have long warned immigration barriers would undermine a business model used to supply highly skilled talent to clients from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. Key for the tech industry are H-1B visas used by workers from India and other countries to fill vital roles.

The visa system was conceived so companies could hire overseas workers to fill a shortage of high-skilled talent in technology services and product development. The fact that Indian outsourcers collect a substantial share of the visas each year has made the program controversial, with critics arguing that companies abuse the system by replacing American workers with cheaper foreign labour.