The Economic Times · Piyush Goyal: every H-1B visa not granted is a win for India
India's commerce minister may be right that India will ultimately prosper from talent that stays home rather than draining to the West. But whether curbs on H-1B visas drove that turnaround will remain a counterfactual claim, hard to prove.
Goyal says he never raised H-1B visas in his talks with Washington. That restraint is questionable. Abuses of work visas, especially by the big Indian outsourcing firms, have been known for a decade. Had India confronted the firms and worked with the United States to end the abuses, it might have won goodwill on visas and much else. India's silence leaves it open to the charge of ignoring the problem, if not condoning it.
Think of it commercially. India supplies a product, tech talent, and American employers are the buyers, entitled to set quality standards. India and its outsourcing firms did not take responsibility for quality and conduct, and let some firms operate as body shops. It is time to do this seriously. India still has the product, and lots of it.
