(Bloomberg) -- The chief executive officer of Asia’s largest IT services firm warned that a U.S. freeze on thousands of employment visas will only raise costs for American corporations like Wall Street banks, auto manufacturers and drugmakers.
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. CEO Rajesh Gopinathan told Bloomberg News the move has put massive stress on a huge swath of Indian-born engineers that have lived in the U.S. for years and helped support American clients, who will ultimately be the ones hurt most. His remarks were among the strongest public rebukes from India’s $181 billion IT industry since U.S. President Donald Trump’s June decree to halt approvals for a range of visas until the end of the year -- including those for intra-company transfers.
TCS and peers like Infosys Ltd. have relied for years on the ability to send talent to work alongside their customers overseas, which include some of the largest electronics manufacturers and global retailers.
“The ignorance around this ruling should be addressed,” Gopinathan said via video conference on Friday. “Playing with the status of people who’ve moved away from families and committed to spending five-six years in a foreign country without immigrant status to deliver value to customers, is a short-term gimmick,” the executive said. Though the move would have no material impact on TCS’s own business, he said, “The attitude towards us in a country where we contribute significantly is unexpected and unfortunate.”
Read more: Tata Consultancy Profit Misses as Lockdowns Snarl Services
On Thursday, TCS reported profit below expectations after the pandemic disrupted operations of its clients from Wall Street banks to Silicon Valley tech giants.
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