H1B Visa Ban will not Affect Indian IT Companies, says Tech Mahindra and Kotak Securities! Report

While most of the IT companies think Trump’s order on Suspension of H1B Visa will have a profound impact on the Indian IT Landscape, few experts from Tech Mahindra and Kotak Securities think Otherwise. 

Although IT stocks have seen a decline recently, Pratik Gupta, CEO & Co-Head, Institutional Equities, Kotak Securities thinks the trend will not continue. "IT spending, we think, is not going to be as bad as what was feared back in March or April, and which is why we have seen some of these stocks come back quietly sharply," Gupta said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

While talking about the stock market, Gupta said that the fears may be overdone. "The bigger issue is not so much the H1B, rather it is more the IT spending outlook by the BFSI space in general. So, we like some of these large IT companies, but I would not be overly worried about this H1B visas, but nor would I be overly optimistic as well,” he said.

He is certain that few pockets of the financial space such as insurance and private banks will recover. 

Similarly, Manoj Bhat, CFO of the Tech Mahindra said that the company is not seeing much of an impact on business due to the restriction. He rather stated that the company is now more local than before. 

“From a near-term perspective or even medium-term perspective, we don’t see much of an impact because of the current situation, because of the travel restrictions – there is no impact. I think from an overall perspective, if I look at our trends, we are more local than before,” said Bhat.

“The duration of this trend is also not known. I am assuming it is more a short-term measure and we will have to see as it goes,” Bhat added.

DD Mishra, research director of Gartner too stated that “as of now we are not very sure and we are going to get more clarity as it evolves but having said so, yes, it is going to impact US organizations more. At an operational level, it is not going to impact the IT service providers more but it has got impact on the end-user companies that are looking at this as an opportunity to drive down cost."

Most of the experts and executives at the managerial levels are hoping the impact to be short term.