NEW DELHI: US restrictions on Indian technology professionals could encourage American companies to shift more high-value technology work to India, including artificial intelligence (AI), product engineering and cybersecurity, former HCL Technologies CEO Vineet Nayar said.
In a post on X, Nayar said the US move to restrict several major technology companies from using the Permanent Labour Certification Program (PERM) could have an unintended impact by accelerating the transfer of technology work to India. “America is making it harder to move Indian talent there, while technology is making it easier for smaller teams in India to take responsibility for increasingly sophisticated work,” Nayar said
He noted that Indian IT companies accounted for fewer than 1,400 of the 117,849 PERM certifications issued last year, representing less than 2 per cent of the total. This, he said, suggests that the direct impact on Indian IT firms could be limited.
Nayar said the Indian IT industry could be entering a new phase, moving beyond its traditional model of sending engineers to client locations in the US and gradually shifting work to India. The next stage, he said, could see Indian teams taking greater responsibility for designing and developing technology, rather than simply executing instructions from overseas clients.
“The opportunity is architecture, product engineering, cybersecurity, AI implementation, industry solutions and eventually ownership of products and IP,” he said.
Trump wants fewer Indian technology professionals moving to America. The unintended consequence may be more American technology work moving to India.
I have spent more than three decades in this industry. So when I read about the latest US action restricting some large technology companies from using PERM, the route through which employees move towards permanent residency, I was less worried than the headlines suggested.
One number explains why. Indian IT companies accounted for less than 1,400 of the 117,849 PERM certifications last year. Less than 2%. The direct impact may therefore be smaller than it first appears.
But something more interesting is happening underneath.
The original Indian IT model was simple. The customer had important work in America, so we sent Indian engineers there to do it. Then we discovered that much of that work could be done from India. The onsite-offshore model was born. I lived that transition.
We may be at the beginning of another one.
America is making it harder to move Indian talent there, while technology is making it easier for smaller teams in India to take responsibility for increasingly sophisticated work.
There is an irony here. In trying to reduce the movement of Indian talent to America, the US may accelerate the movement of American work to India.
But I don’t mean another wave of coding and maintenance jobs.
The opportunity is architecture, product engineering, cybersecurity, AI implementation, industry solutions and eventually ownership of products and IP.
Indian teams should not merely receive specifications from New York. They should help decide what gets built. Not merely maintain a global bank’s technology platform, but help redesign the bank. Not just supply engineers to solve somebody else’s problem, but own the problem.
There is an uncomfortable truth too.
For thirty years, growth in Indian IT and growth in Indian IT employment travelled together. Win more business, hire more engineers.
As AI technology improves productivity, that relationship may weaken. Indian IT could win more sophisticated work and create more value without headcount growing at the same rate.
So we need a different definition of success.
For thirty years, Indian IT competed largely on the cost of Indian talent. The next thirty will depend on the capability of Indian talent.
Can we create architects rather than only programmers? Build products and IP here? Move more global decision-making to India? Create more value per person and therefore pay our people far better?
Those are much bigger questions than how many visas America issues.
So worry not about the visa headlines.
Trump may make it harder for Indian engineers to move to American work. The opportunity is to make American work move to Indian engineers.
— Vineet Nayar (@vineetnayar) October 9, 2026
The remarks come after the US government announced restrictions on several major technology and outsourcing companies, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Cognizant, under the PERM programme amid investigations into alleged misuse of the system. US technology companies Microsoft and Adobe were also named in the action.
US Labour Secretary Keith Sonderling said the companies had collectively sought millions of foreign workers and received hundreds of thousands of H-1B visa approvals and permanent labour certifications. He said the action was aimed at addressing concerns over foreign hiring and protecting American workers.
TCS said it would comply with any directive issued by the US Department of Labour, adding that its workforce strategy in the country was based on local hiring.
The company said its PERM applications had remained in single digits over the previous two years and that it did not expect the suspension to affect its workforce strategy or customer engagements. TCS also reiterated its plan to hire an additional 15,000 employees in the US over five years.
Nayar also cautioned that artificial intelligence could weaken the traditional relationship between business growth and employment in the Indian IT sector. “For thirty years, Indian IT competed largely on the cost of Indian talent. The next thirty will depend on the capability of Indian talent,” he said.
He added that the industry’s future growth would depend on its ability to develop products, build a larger pool of technology architects and shift more global technology decision-making to India. This could help Indian IT companies generate greater value per employee, even if employment growth does not keep pace with business expansion. (ANI)
