Become independent of visas and hire locally: Infosys

Last year, the US, under the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act had imposed a special fee raising the cost of visas for Indian IT firms.

Terming the debate around visa-related issues as "rhetoric", Infosys chief Vishal Sikka on Friday said the company is working on becoming "independent of the visa issue" as much as possible and hire more locals.

"Our view is to become independent of visas, to hire locally. I'm myself a local hire in the US, we have thousands of people who are locally hired working in US, Europe, Australia and other places," he said.

The company's endeavour is to get independent of this visa matter as much as possible, he added.

"I believe it is possible for us to achieve that... we believe that this idea of a location independence experience of delivery is something that is in our reach because of technology," he said.

Noting that building a right kind of talent is important, Sikka said that over the last decades, there is too much dependence on visas.

"...the answer to this is a combination of local hiring, better solutioning and the next generation technology collaboration... this will help us deliver the best value no matter where the people are," he said.

Last year, the US, under the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act had imposed a special fee raising the cost of visas for Indian IT firms.

According to Indian IT body Nasscom, this is expected to have an impact of about $400 million annually on India's technology sector.

Infosys had said it is working on utilising levers like increasing onsite recruitment to mitigate the situation in the longer term.

Asked about his views on the discussion about visa norms as part of the US Presidential elections, Sikka said: "Of course, this being a Presidential election year in the US, there is lot of rhetoric around this".

"Obviously, we continue to be influenced in the near term by the visa situation," he added.