Topline
Shares of major Indian tech services firms plunged sharply on Monday in response to President Donald Trump’s move to impose a new $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications, which is expected to create operational and cost challenges for the outsourcing companies, which rely on the temporary skilled worker visa to deploy Indian workers to clients in the U.S.
Shares of Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest IT services firm by market cap, was down than 3.1% to $34.85 (Rs 3,073.50) during afternoon trading in Mumbai.
Infosys’ stock dropped 3.19% to $16.91 (Rs 1,491), HCLTech shares were down 1.92%, while shares of Tech Mahindra and Wipro were down 3.55% and 2.30% respectively.
The Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark SENSEX index also declined on Monday by 0.26% to 82,347 points, while the Nifty IT index, which tracks the country’s IT sector, fell more than 3%.
Shares of U.S. tech giants Google, Meta and Microsoft, which also rely on the visa for hiring foreign talent, were also down slightly in premarket trading.
Over the weekend, following Trump’s announcement, Indian government officials warned there would be an “immediate fallout” for Indian IT firms and professionals, adding: “We have to see how companies adapt to it.”
In a statement issued over the weekend, India’s foreign ministry said: “This measure is likely to have humanitarian consequences by way of the disruption caused for families. Government hopes that these disruptions can be addressed suitably by the US authorities.” The statement added: “Skilled talent mobility and exchanges have contributed enormously to technology development, innovation, economic growth, competitiveness and wealth creation in the United States and India.”
Around 73% of all H-1B workers whose applications were approved in the fiscal year 2023 were Indian born, the Pew Research Center reported, citing USCIS data. China ranked a distant second with 12% approvals. The report noted that Indian-born individuals have been the biggest beneficiaries of H-1B approvals every year since 2010.