Over 6,600 H-1B visas approved for 14 Indian tech companies in 2019-20: Dhotre

Fourteen of the largest Indian technology companies in the US had an aggregate of 6,663 H-1B visas approved for initial employment in 2019-20, the Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

"...the 14 largest Indian technology companies in the US had aggregate 6,663 H-1B visas approved for initial employment in the financial year 2019-20," Minister of State for Electronics and IT Sanjay Dhotre said, citing data from industry body Nasscom.

These form 7.9 per cent of the total 85,000 H-1B visas approved for cap and cap-exempt initial employment, he said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

"These 14 companies form 85-90 per cent of the H-1B visas issued to all Indian technology companies," Dhotre said.

The actual impact on Indian IT companies due to restrictions imposed by the US on H-1B visas can only be gauged in course of time, the minister added.

In response to a separate query, Dhotre said 190 companies have been allocated a total of 51,297 BPO/ITES seats to set up 276 BPO/ITES units across the country under the India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS).

"Out of these, 249 units have started operations providing direct employment to over 36,000 people," he added.