ng H1B visas," Donald Ney, commercial attache at the Chennai US Consulate, told a seminar on Indian companies and stock markets here. "Let me make it clear that these are estimates. Out of the 165,000 non-immigration visas, about 30,000 were IT professionals. And, as the figure goes up to 220,000, our estimate would be about 45,000 IT professionals," Alter said.
According to India's IT industry think tank National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), India's software exports crossed $ 4.0 billion in 1999- 2000, and are estimated at $ 6.3 billion in the current fiscal year. Software exports are expected to grow roughly 50 per cent every year to reach $ 50 billion in 2007-08, it said.
"We expect the figure to go up to half a million this year. And, by 2005, we expect to process one million applications. Even if 25 per cent are refused, something like 750,000 Indians would be traveling to the US on non-immigration visas," he said.
According to the official, one out of every four persons entering the US is from the south of India. "Unlike the north of India, where the link language is Hindi, English is the link language in the south. And, this is definitely one of the major reasons. There are also other factors like the people from the south historically looking at traveling across the seas, unlike the north," Alter added.
India needs 2.2 million software experts, up from the current figure of 340,000, to reach projected exports of $ 50 billion by 2008, industry association Nasscom said.
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