Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, IT czar and Wipro Chairman Azim Premji and TCS Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director N Chandrasekaran held separate meetings with the minister this evening.
"We are committed to working closely with the government to bring benefits like connectivity to people. We want to work together in areas like e-governance, education to connect people and the world," Sandberg said after her meeting.
Sources said Premji and Chandrasekaran met Prasad and discussed issues affecting the Indian IT sector.
"The discussions were around concerns of the major IT companies, including issues like visa, tax and security of employees," they said.
More From This Section
These companies have been asked to prepare a note and also collectively approach the PM to convey their concerns, they added.
While Premji did not comment on the nature of the discussions, Chandrasekaran said the meeting was a "courtesy call" to the new minister.
While the Bill is yet to be passed by the US House of Representatives, industry members have been engaging with the government and their US counterparts to convey their concerns.
IT firms, especially Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro, the biggest three in India, rely heavily on visas to send employees overseas to service clients.
The proposed legislation also requires firms to dilute their visa-dependent workforce over the next few years, a move that will force Indian companies to hire local talent, thus affecting their cost of operations.