The recent hike in H-1B and L1 visa fee to raise $600 million for securing the American border with Mexico is "a bad policy" for the US and could very well "sour" its ties with India whose IT sector is affected by the move, two noted economic experts have said.
The Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Anand Sharma, had last week written a letter to the US Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, in this regard.
The steep increase in visa fee of certain categories of H-1B and L1 visas was part of the $600 million border security bill signed by the US President Barack Obama, last week, to strengthen security along the US-Mexico border.
India said on Wednesday that it has conveyed its concerns to the United States over the hike in fees for H1B and L category visas and hopes for an 'early resolution' of the issue as the move was affecting Indian companies.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta termed the exorbitant rise of airfares by airlines as "exploitation" and asked the Centre and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to file their replies to a PIL seeking binding regulatory guidelines to control the unpredictable fluctuations in airfare and ancillary charges imposed by private airlines in India.
India has expressed concern over the hike in visa fee by the US, saying it is "discriminatory" and largely affects Indian IT professionals.
The Indian Institute of Management (Calcutta) has hiked the fees for its postgraduate programmes by Rs 25,000 from the next session to strengthen its infrastructure.
In the medium term, corporates and vendors could move away from visa dependency, shift more work offshore and share higher cost burdens with clients.
Trading sentiment in the equity market will be guided by macroeconomic data announcements, global trends and quarterly earnings from IT major TCS this week, analysts said. Stock markets would also be tracking trading activity of foreign investors who remained net sellers of Indian equities in September.
Tuition fee does little to even meet the institutes' operating expenses; directors differ on fee hike.
The US move comes in the midst of protests by India that the increase incorporated in the Border Security Bill is discriminatory against Indian companies and needed to be amended.
Social media feeds and immigration forums lit up with questions from workers and families who feared they might be stranded abroad, unable to return to their jobs or reunite with loved ones.
In a first, graduating students from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) have decided to pledge Rs 200 per month in favour of the institute from their salaries for one year.
Passengers may think they are just booking a ticket, but airlines' clever design tricks are quietly picking their pockets.
High-tech industry bodies have welcomed the move to drop a hefty $3500 fee increase in the H1B visa programme, which would also benefit Indian professionals seeking jobs in the US. Hailing the move, they said the US must retain top talent from around the world to retain America's economic leadership.
In spite of effecting a fee hike by 200 per cent, IIM-A is now running at a deficit of Rs 7-8 crore (Rs 70-80 million), against a corpus of Rs 170 crore (Rs 1.7 billion) in 2001. The institute had asked for a fund of Rs 54 crore from the government of which only Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) has been disbursed so far. Last year, IIM-A hiked fee for its flagship post graduate programme course by 200 per cent from Rs 5,50,000 to Rs 11 lakhs (Rs 1.1 million).
Indian information-technology (IT) service providers are likely to report another quarter (July-September) of low, single-digit growth owing to macro uncertainties, chiefly emanating from America, with no respite in sight even in the second half of the year.
Commuters on national highways and expressways will need to pay more for their road journeys, as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has increased toll charges by an average of 4 to 5 per cent on highway sections across the country. The revised toll charges for motorists on national highways across the country have come into effect from Tuesday, a senior highways ministry official told PTI.
A bench of Justices R M Lodha and A K Patnaik, however, directed that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi shall not encash the FDR deposited towards the enhanced fee by the operators pursuant to a directive by the Delhi high court.
IIM C and IIM A have hiked their fees for post graduate programme by Rs 1 lakh.
Fund managers queued up to grab a pie of the new pension scheme that opens for subscription on May 1. But even before the scheme is launched, they are complaining of it being a loss-making business with the investment management fee fixed at 0.009 per cent.
The decision to hike US H-1B visa application fee to $100,000, trade talks and the GST rate cut will be the key drivers for stock market movement this week, analysts said.
The Reserve Bank of India on Friday permitted banks to increase charges on ATM cash withdrawals beyond the mandatory free monthly usage by Rs 2 to Rs 23 per transaction from May 1.
If the measure passed by the United States Senate to virtually double the fees for issuing visas to temporary skilled workers eventually passes into law, it will be harmful to virtually everyone concerned.
'If I have to go back, I would rather go back now because I don't want to face that situation when I'm in my 40s.' A young couple's journey through immigration uncertainty reveals not just the human cost of policy announcements, but a surprising rekindling of love for the homeland left behind.
India's disappointment over recent 'protectionist' measures by the United States, including increase in visa fee for IT professionals and Ohio's ban on government outsourcing, will be raised at the high level ministerial meeting in Washington on Tuesday.
Motorists using expressways will have to shell out more from Monday as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to hike tolls across the country by an average of 5 per cent. The annual revision of highway user fee, which is expected to be in the range of average 5 per cent, was earlier to come into effect on April 1. But the hike was deferred due to the Lok Sabha elections.
Sushmita Sen is the hero of Aarya. So why won't she be paid on par with Bollywood A-listers?
The International Air Transport Association on Tuesday criticised the increase in airport development charges imposed by Mumbai and New Delhi, saying the burden on the already beleaguered global airline industry is a 'wake up call' for the Indian government.
Among Sensex firms, Trent, Tech Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints, Eternal and ITC were the major laggards. Selling in HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank also dragged the key indices. However, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, Maruti and State Bank of India were among the gainers.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) remained net sellers of Indian equities in September, withdrawing Rs 23,885 crore (around $2.7 billion) and taking year-to-date outflow to Rs 1.58 lakh crore ($17.6 billion).
With more than 1.2 million Indians stuck in green card backlogs, investor-driven EB-5 programme sees rising interest as a secure route for migration to the US.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav promised that if the INDIA bloc comes to power in Bihar, it will ensure every family has a member with a government job, enacting legislation within 20 days of forming the government.
'New announcements are made every day which brings tremendous amount of instability and uncertainty.' 'Relying on America has become a big problem.'
The Indian team has returned from the US after holding trade talks with their American counterparts in New York, an official said on Thursday. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, who led the team, will be back on Friday.
Leading brokers are expected to increase brokerage rates in the coming weeks, as they navigate a series of regulatory changes that are expected to squeeze profitability. According to industry sources, top brokers may soon begin charging for equity trades and raise the flat fees for intra-day and derivatives trading by 10-30 per cent. Several smaller players have already hiked their brokerage charges, signalling a potential end to the zero-brokerage era that has drawn millions of new investors into the stock market and fuelled active trading.
Most pharma shares dropped, dragging the BSE Healthcare index down by 2.14 per cent after Trump's move to impose 100 per cent import tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs from October 1. Wockhardt shares tanked 9.4 per cent.
