Days before United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo touches down in India on his official visit, the two nations are once again at loggerheads over H-1B work visas.
The United States is believed to have told India that it was mulling caps on H1-B visas, news agency Reuters reported, quoting at least three sources in the know of the entire matter.
It has also been reported that the Trump administration was considering caps for "nations that force foreign companies to store data locally."
Not long ago, the Donald Trump-led government had withdrawn a trade privilege India was benefitting from and asked the Modi-led dispensation to further reduce tariffs on US-owned motorcycle brands such as Harley Davidson.
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With no country-specific cap in place, India gets an estimated 70% of 85,000 H-1B work visas the US issues every year, Reuters reported.
"The proposal is that any country that does data localisation, then it (H-1B visas) would be limited to about 15% of the quota. It's being discussed internally in the U.S. government," a person was quoted as saying by the news agency.
The proposed move has triggered a conversation within the External Affairs ministry, which has asked for an "urgent response" to gauge the impact the decision is expected to cause.
