Just a couple of days back we had a highly debatable topic from Ankit on whether Indian outsourcing is a real threat to America in terms of job losses – And, indeed, he had some intriguing supporting data to back his views on the topic. But, this time around I’ve caught up with a similar issue but from the other side of the story.
Recently, Indian embassy at Kyiv (Ukraine) has rejected the request for an employment visa for a Ukraine citizen who claims to have got a job offer in India. The report further says that Ministry of External Affairs has mandated that the employment visa can be provided only to those expatriates working in India holding a minimum salary structure of USD 25000 (over 11 lakhs).
The woman claims that the officer at the embassy had reasoned out that the new rule has been introduced from April 2010 mandating a salary in India equivalent to USD 25000 per annum for issuance of an employment visa.
In my opinion this issue could have wide ramification on the foreign employees working in Indian companies. If at all the report (or for that matter the claims made by the Ukraine citizen) is authentic in nature, the Ministry of External Affairs needs to review this strange policy decision based on the employee’s salary structure rather than its potential.
Think of it from the other angle affecting Indian employees! What if the same policy structure is proposed by giant western economies against the Indians employees having a larger say in the day-to-day corporate affairs of MNCs?
The fact of the matter remains that more Indians are involved in the outsourcing and outbound jobs, than the inbound job opportunities garnered by the foreign workers.
At a time when the Indian government is strongly advocating free trade and services on the global podium, Manmohan Singh government needs to come out clean without any dichromatic policy matters to enlighten a clear cut agenda for the country.
At the same time, alongside the current recover-led global situation, inbound foreign talent is not so much an undesirable proposition, while it helps to keep a check on the high levels of attrition in almost all major industries, especially led by the outsourcing boom. The same can also be justified for building healthy competitive pressures within the Indian shores to provide that extra push for enhanced productivity.
Don’t you feel this issue is really worth making noise, at a time when we Indians willingly raise our voices against Obama’s anti-outsourcing policy?