One of the biggest outsourcing firm and tech giant, Wipro formally called out American President Donald Trump as a risk to its business. In its latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Bangalore-based company has included Donald Trump’s election as United States President in a list of ‘risk factors’.
Wipro says Trump is a risk to its business
Wipro said, ‘Significant developments stemming from the recent United States presidential election could have a material adverse effect on our business’.
Specific Risk
The tech giant has called out Trump’s advocacy for ‘greater restrictions on free trade’ and his opposition to the North America Free Trade Agreement as for specific risks.
Wipro much like its other peers Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra and others, actually depends heavily on the United States for generating revenue. Out of its total revenue, more than half of the revenue is being generated from U.S. clients.
Trump administration accused Indian firms
Want to publish your own articles on DistilINFO Publications?
Send us an email, we will get in touch with you.
President Trump and his administration have recently accused Indian firms of using the H-1B work visa program in order to send millions of foreign tech workers to the U.S. According to Trump administration, the tech work could even be done by Americans. Further, around 70% of all H-1B work visas go to Indian workers.
So in an executive order on April 17, President Trump has called for the work visa program to be reviewed and possibly overhauled.
Radical shift on immigration will hurt Indian industry
Although the Indian tech firms initially downplayed the impact of changes to H-1B visas; however, in recent weeks, some firms have even raised concern about the same. Last month Tech Mahindra’s vice chairman Mr. Vineet Nayyar said that Trump’s ‘radical shifts’ on immigration will hurt the $150 billion Indian industry.
Several outsourcing firms have already been reducing their dependence on the H-1B visa program with some started the process long before Trump came to power and ramping up local hiring.
Further, a new report from a Virginia-based think tank said that H-1B visas given to the top 7 Indian outsourcing firms have declined by around 37% between 2015 and 2016. Wipro’s alone declined by around 52% in that period.
Image Source: Image
Date: June 21, 2017