Singh is in Seattle to visit some top companies.
AB Wire
India’s Ambassador to the US, Arun Kumar Singh, has defended the influx of skilled labor from India to the US, saying in an interview that H-1B visa workers are “contributing to the process of profitability and technology generation for U.S. companies.”
Speaking to GeekWire in Seattle, where he is this week to visit visiting companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Boeing, and more, Singh deflected any criticism of the H-1B visa program, saying the H-1B visa structure is “for U.S. authorities to decide,” adding that “Indian H-1B workers who come here are contributing to the process of profitability and technology generation for U.S. companies.”
He added: “They are making an important contribution. I get the sense that U.S. companies find the Indian H1-B workers extremely useful for them to be able to meet their objectives.”
GeekWire noted the importance US tech companies have of late seen in India, with Qualcomm investing $150 million for a startup fund for India and Amazon’s commitment to “invade India” and “conquer the next trillion-dollar market”, as a recent Fortune cover story described.
On Amazon, which is competing with India-based companies like Flipkart and Snapdeal, Singh said: “We are trying to see how we can use e-commerce to enable us to contribute to the economic and social processes in India.”
He added: “We want to figure out how to use technology to enable empowerment in India — to enable the poorest sections of society to be able to access opportunity, and to enable us to address our challenges while minimizing use of resources.”
There’s also a recent surge in India-based startup activity, Singh noted, GeekWire reported, with the government taking steps to encourage entrepreneurship and make the process of creating a company more seamless. There has been $6 billion flowing into startups in India over the last two years, he said.
“We want to see how India and the U.S. can work together in a way that works for both U.S. companies and India companies,” said Singh, who added that annual trade between India and U.S. has grown 5X over the last 15 years to $120 billion.
1 Comment
You are missing the point of opposition to the H-1B. The H-1B leads to lower wages and fewer jobs for Americans who vote. The contribution to profitability of US companies is irrelevant.