In a move reminiscent of the glory days of the licence raj, the government has imposed a visa limit on high-skilled foreign labour working on Indian projects. For every one foreigner that a company wants, it could have to hire 100 Indians. The move to limit high-skilled labour comes soon after the ban on visas for semi-skilled and unskilled labour, and is possibly motivated by concerns of Chinese labour entering Indian markets.

Whatever be the rationale, there are many problems with the current move. The first is the arbitrariness of the ratio, one that seems to be pulled out of thin air. What does a company do if it employs only 50 workers, but needs a skilled foreigner? Should it go for an expansion plan merely to fit the visa criteria? The move could impact Indian industry, without providing a compelling rationale to do so. The second problem is one of hypocrisy. India’s high-skilled expatriates send back valuable foreign exchange, become one-person ambassadors, and some return to contribute to the Indian economy. The arbitrary limit set by the US on H1-B visas shows why such immigration paranoia is self-defeating. So the argument is with Indian visas for high-skilled foreigners. The quota imposed is arbitrary, bad for business as well as hypocritical.

Foreign workers working on Indian infrastructure projects is a politically fraught issue. The context is obvious: should not jobs go to local labour? The garden-variety protectionism that governments respond with is to ban foreign labour, or limit it, which is precisely what the Centre’s 1:100 ratio is. The other response is to provide training and education to local labour, so that they can compete with the best. But that long road isn’t half as much fun as limits and licences, quick-fix bureaucratic solutions far removed from ground reality.