Wipro localising more in US: Rishad Premji

Indian IT services giant Wipro is “localising more” in the US and more than half of its workforce in the country now consists of locals, the company’s Chief Strategy Officer Rishad Premji said, asserting that the firm is very committed to the US market.

Premji, who is Member of the Board at Wipro, said the company currently has a workforce of over 14,000 employees in the US and 58% of those are locals.

Under the Donald Trump administration, there is heightened scrutiny of the H1B work visa programme, which several lawmakers allege is being abused to replace Americans with foreign workers.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

Since taking office, Trump has ordered an overhaul of the H1B visa programme to check visa fraud and abuse, and his administration has taken steps to tighten scrutiny of applications, adding to the uncertainty and anxiety of thousands of IT workers on the visas over their future.

“So we are not a 50-50 company. (The US) still remains one of our largest markets so it’s an area of big focus for growth and I think if you cannot win in the US market, you really won’t win globally,” Premji said.

Premji, who was in the city to address the Nasscom C-Summit last week, said Wipro is “very very committed" to the US market.

Premji is also the chairman of Nasscom.