Challenges of Indian IT Sector in Trump era

The restrictions being mulled by US President over H1B visa aim to develop jobs for local population. This visa has been misused by companies to save costs by hiring cheap labour from other countries. The major cause of discontent is the IT sector in US.

For Indian IT sector , the major challenge is changing nature of business. The demand of IT services has been changing gradually. The current exports revenue breakup is 56.59% from IT services , 20.78% from software products and engineering services and 22.63% from business process management.

But , changing demographic profile and their needs push for overhaul in requirement of services. The most important sectors are retail and healthcare.  So , there is need to divert orientation of Indian IT sector from application development to   cloud , artificial intelligence , automation and data analytics.

The other great challenge is the growing protectionism in the developed world. The exports of IT services to European countries are already declining. US has always been a bright spot for Indian IT sector. But , Indian IT companies have also earned bad name for themselves due to misuse of H1B visas. 

Many Indian companies are facing allegations of the misuse of H1B visas and are constantly under the radar of local Americans. There are also charges of IPR violations over the companies. Penalties were also imposed on TCS for IPR violations affecting the company's reputation.

So , the changing exports needs and the changing population profile of India opens up new avenues for employment and skilling. India needs to diversify its IT services to remain competitive in the global market.