Renowned economist and historian Sanjeev Sanyal recently made a bold claim: long-term visas such as the H-1B yield more benefits for the host country than for the country of origin. Speaking at Network18’s Reforms Reloaded summit in New Delhi, he pointed out that these visas allow host nations to attract highly skilled workers without bearing the full burden of their education and early training.
Sanyal specifically raised questions about why Indian IT firms send professionals to the U.S. when much of that work can be done remotely. “Even today, H-1B is predominantly used by U.S. tech giants and not Indian firms,” he remarked, challenging the logic of physical relocation in industries built for digital collaboration. He underscored that India should refrain from treating these visas as bargaining chips in diplomatic negotiations—in his view, they are a resource the source country should retain rather than concede.
