'Germany should review its decision on green cards'

Apprehending an adverse impact on timely delivery of projects to customers, the Indian IT industry is pushing the National Association of Software and Services Companies and other agencies to lobby hard with Germany for reviewing its decision to stop issuing green cards to software professionals.

Industry leaders said the withdrawal of green cards, effective July 31, 2003, would affect delivery of projects, as a return to the normal work permit regime by Germany would be time-consuming.

"We are driving through Nasscom to represent the predicament of the Indian IT industry to the German authorities, directly and through the government," Wipro Technologies chief executive, talent transformation and external relations, Laxman Badiga told PTI.

"The process of issuing a regular work permit is lengthy, involves many departments and takes about three months plus. On the contrary, the processing of green cards is one week," Badiga said.  

Germany, which had planned to issue 20,000 green cards to IT professionals since August 2000 has given nearly 13,500 cards till January this year. Of this, the maximum green cards have been issued, over 3,200, to 'Indian techies'.

The new German move on green cards comes just less than one and a half years after German Chancellor Gerard Schroeder wooed hard Indian IT programmers to his country during his visit to Bangalore in October 2001.

Phaneesh Murthy of US-based advisory firm for IT consulting and services company PriMentor Inc, said India should lobby the way China does.

"At the highest level, it should ensure that trade relations are improved. From what I hear, China has fantastic lobbies in Washington DC and other countries so most of manufacturing is still done in China," Murthy, a former worldwide sales head of Infosys Technologies, said.

Indian IT firms, he said, need to sit down with their customers and plan more proactively and a little better to instil confidence.

They feel that though Germany's decision may not affect IT companies with projects based on long-term relationship, firms with a new German client would face problems.

Human Resources consulting firm Peopleone Consulting Pvt Ltd CEO Ajit Isaac said India could repeat its stance of stalling the New Jersey bill banning outsourcing of government IT work, if it builds public opinion and lobbies hard with Germany.

Pointing to the move by Germany as a "knee-jerk reaction" to local pressures triggered by downturn in German economy, Isaac said in the long run the European country would revive issuing green cards.