Fresh visa trouble for Indian IT professionals: Now Singapore wants to hire locals

While all eyes and ears are on US President Donald Trump's take on IT outsourcing to countries like India and his administration's norms on H-1B visas, Singapore has quietly blocked visas for Indian IT professionals over the last few months, according to a report by The Times of India.

It quotes IT industry body Nasscom's President R Chandrashekhar saying that since 2016, visas for Indian IT professionals have come down "to a trickle".

This comes in the backdrop of Indian companies asked to hire local talent in Singapore. Indian IT companies like HCL, Tata Consultancy Services, Cognizant, Wipro, Infosys, and L&T Infotech, all have operational presence in Singapore.

Chandrashekhar said, "All Indian companies have received communication on fair consideration, which basically means hiring local people".Looking at the fall in the visa approvals for Indian IT professionals, India has now put the review of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) on hold, saying that the move was in violation of the trade pact.

The report said that Singapore authorities were now insisting on a "Economic Needs Test" "which requires compliance with certain economic criteria" to deny access to Indian talent. This is in direct contravention of the CECA which states that "there will be no ENT or quotas on agreed services. This is a violation," an Indian officer was quoted anonymously.

With this development, Singapore joins the US in looking inwards to hire talent in a bid to 'bring back jobs' for its people as is popularly stated by the 45th US President.