India to relax work permit rules for expats?
Wednesday, 03 February 2010, 14:54 IST   |    5 Comments
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India to relax work permit rules for expats?
New Delhi: Giving in to the demand of the $60 billion IT industry that needs foreign expertise to run businesses smoothly, the government may just relax the rules that prohibit foreigners on business visas from working in India, reports Economic Times. "We are preparing a list of activities in the IT sector for which companies may be allowed to employ foreign nationals without work permits for a limited period," said a government official, wishing to remain anonymous. However, the IT industry also sought the relaxation of another rule that limits the number of business visas. Last year, the Labour Ministry had, in consultation with the Home Ministry, introduced a number of changes in the visa rules, after it found that there were thousands of Chinese workers employed in power and steel projects being built by Chinese contractors. These rules prevented foreign nationals with business visas from working in India even in short stints, if they did not have work permits. It was stipulated that employment visas will be given to only one percent of the total number of workers in a particular project. Additionally an upper limit of 20 workers for projects was imposed. "After the visa rules were changed, the number of Chinese working in the country has come down from 42,000 to about 3,000," said the government official. "IT industry is a people's business and companies are globally integrated," said Som Mittal, President of Nasscom - an industry body of IT and outsourcing firms. "Restricting the number of foreign nationals in individual companies would hamper activities."

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