Ron Somers, President of the US-India Business Council, told India Abroad: “We are pulling together a similar advocacy team like what we did during the US-India civil nuclear initiative,” to push through the deal through the US Congress over four years ago.
“It’s very important that we once again re-emphasise the vitality of the US-India partnership, particularly in the knowledge economy and in the IT (information technology) sector,” he said.
Somers reiterated that “it’s important and essential for the success and the competitiveness of our American firms and our India colleagues. In other words, this is the new global economy and it involves the United States and India.”
Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over immigration laws, has once again introduced legislation to reform the H-1B and the L-1 visa program - the latter for intra-company transfers, arguing that it is an effort to help sure Americans are given top consideration when applying for jobs and to root out fraud, which he has alleged over the years is rampant in these programs.
In earlier times, he has accused Indian blue-chip firms like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro and others, being a party to such fraud, which have been vehemently denied by these conglomerates.
Grassley said his bill seeks to increase enforcement, modify wage requirements and ensure protection for visa holders and American workers (India Abroad, March 29).
Meanwhile, the vice-president of IEEE had alleged in Congressional testimony that the H-1B program is rampant with gender bias, which has been rebutted by Vivek Wadhwa, crusader for immigration reform to retain high-skilled workers and expand the H-1B program as a racist campaign to slander the H-1B program (India Abroad, March 29).
Somers told India Abroad that the USIBC, had reached out to Grassley to dissuade him from going after the H-1B program, which he has made a habit of doing over the past few years, which some sources have said is personal since he doesn’t receive any contributions to his campaign coffers from IT firms, including American affiliates of Indian IT heavyweights as he once did when Sanjay Puri, founder and president and IT entrepreneur would organise $10,000
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