H1B fee hike will hit US startups and innovation more, will have minimal impact on India's IT sector: USISPF Chief

By Ayushi Agarwal

New York (US), September 24 (ANI): The recent H1B visa fee hike announced by the US administration will hit more to startups and innovation of the United States than India's IT services exports, said US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) President and CEO Mukesh Aghi.

In an exclusive conversation with ANI, Aghi said the move may in fact work in favour of India. "It works in favour of India because from a US perspective, H-1B was being abused in some manner, and they would like to bring in high-quality people to the US. That means, Indian workers coming to the US on H-1B will get much higher compensation. More importantly, low-end work will shift offshore to India. Even though there's a lot of hype surrounding H-1B, the impact on India's economy and its IT services exports will be minimal. It will have an impact on innovations (in the US) and on startups. But will it impact the economy? No," he stated.

On US President Donald Trump's remarks during the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Aghi said India has always maintained that there will be no third-party intervention in its conflict with Pakistan.

"India has made a statement consistently that there was no third-party interference in the war with Pakistan. Whereas the President claims that he interfered in the seven wars and brought peace to them. India has said consistently for the last 70 years that there will be no third-party intervention. Overall, I would say the speech was good except for the part about India and Pakistan," he noted.

Responding to Trump's comments that China and India are primary funders of the Russia-Ukraine war by continuing to purchase Russian oil, Aghi said the assessment was inaccurate.

"Europeans are buying much more LNG from Russia. Yes, India is buying, as is China in much larger numbers, and also the US. But are they fueling the war? I don't think so. The war was fueled much earlier from that perspective. Saying that the Russia war is being fueled to a certain extent by India, China, and Europe is inaccurate," he explained.

On the 50 per cent US tariffs imposed on India, Aghi said the broader relationship between the two countries will continue to move forward despite trade challenges.

"I strongly believe that the relationship between the two countries beyond trade is a relationship which is geopolitically aligned. It's a relationship that is focused a lot on people-to-people and technology transfer. You have US companies setting up hundreds of global capability centres in India, as well as in innovation itself. I believe trade issues will get settled down and the relationship will start moving in the right trajectory pretty soon," he added. (ANI)

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