The race for talent is slipping away

Shortly after United States President Donald Trump announced that fresh H-1B visa application fees were being hiked to $100,000, a move ostensibly aimed at protecting domestic US job seekers against cheaper talent from India and other countries, a slew of Indian experts claimed that the country would gain massively from the move.

- PROSENJIT DATTA

Their assumption was that because of the visa fee hike and other measures beingtaken by the US to curb the entry of foreign workers, a large number of Indians on H-1B visas, in fields ranging from technology to healthcare, would return to help develop these sectors in India.

This is wishful thinking. Various Indian policymakers and other luminaries, after making some encouraging and jingoistic statements, have not bothered to put together any concrete plan or announce any major steps to encourage Indian talent to return.

Contrast this with other countries that have been quick to make announcements designed to attract the talent that will become available because of the H-1B visa fee hike. Rachel Reeves, chancellor of the exchequer in the United Kingdom, announced that the country would make it easier to attract global talent, even as the US was actively discouraging them. Among the steps the UK is contemplating is doubling the number of visas for high-skilled foreign workers and a special free visa fora select group of highly accomplished global talent.

While these steps are in no way directed specifically at Indian talent working on H-1B visas in the US, it may be attractive to at least some of those Indiansin STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields in the US who are now looking at other options. The steps being contemplated are not specifically for those who were earlier plan-