From July,each power and steel project can only have 20 skilled foreign hands

The guidelines clearly state that “while importing foreign nationals for any project for which permission has been sought,training may be conducted for development of local personnel in the same skill/area so that the skilled people within the country are available to take the project further.”

On power and steel sectors in particular,the guidelines state that “keeping in mind the long term sustainability of the project,it is necessary to train Indian workers even if it is new technology so that after commissioning,the plants can be run by the local technical persons.”

“Therefore,it has been decided that this dispensation (of allowing 40 foreign professionals and highly skilled persons per project) will be available only up to June 2010 by which time the Indian companies will develop their in-house capacity of training,” stated an office memorandum issued by the Ministry.

Setting the ceiling for issuance of employment visas,the Ministry had in September come out with its first guideline under which a company was allowed to bring from abroad a maximum of 20 highly skilled (persons) and professionals per project. It relaxed the norms for power and steel projects later,hiking the employment visa quota to 40.

The fresh guidelines include a direction to Indian missions to furnish details of all employment visas issued by them for each project from now on. Sources said the idea was to ensure that employment visas are not granted for skills that are already available in the country.

“We are told that almost all of the power and steel projects which are under construction are expected to be commissioned by the middle of this year. From July onwards,the guideline will be the same for all sectors,” a senior official told The Indian Express on the rationale behind setting a deadline to train local workers.

The Labour Ministry is also clear on one count. Whether it is power,steel or any other project,employment visas should be issued only to “skilled and qualified professionals,technical experts,senior executives or in managerial positions” and to those who possess “skills that are not available in India.”

Although Indian missions are required to seek the clearance of the Labour Ministry only when the demand for employment visas exceed the ceiling set by it,the Ministry wants to know details of visas issued for each project so that it can keep count of foreign nationals working on any project.