http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=94482The Union Ministry of Labour & Employment & Training has recently issued revised guidelines in relation to Employment Visa's ("EV") issued to foreign nationals. The guidelines are intended to stem the influx of unskilled labour into India, thereby giving the Indian workforce a greater chance for employment opportunities. The gist of the guidelines is to restrict the issuance of EVs to 1% of the total number of workers working on a project with a minimum of five workers and a maximum of twenty workers, except in the case of the power and steel sector. In the case of the power and steel sector, the maximum limit has been temporarily increased to forty workers till June 2010.
... On the flipside, communication from the Indian Government suggests that rules may be relaxed that prohibit foreigners on B-visas from working in India for the multi billion dollar IT sector that requires foreign expertise to operate smoothly.
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?264461T.V. Mohandas Pai, board member and director, human resources, Infosys, spoke to Outlook about the government’s new visa regulations and how they are impacting business.
Were you expecting changes in rules for hiring foreign nationals?
We had no warning. We met the home minister later, who said the changes are meant to curb unskilled labour immigration. But it hasn’t worked that way—everyone in business is being impacted. Highly skilled people are finding it impossible to come here.
Isn’t the limit—one per cent of the workforce—adequate?
While India asks other countries to raise quotas for Indians immigrants, it’s not right to impose individual quotas on companies here. It’s ridiculous. India should think of a national quota, on the lines of the h1b. Infosys needs to move professionals around freely; a quota that disregards company size is absolutely unreasonable.