As British Prime Minister Theresa May lands in the IT city tomorrow, the Karnataka government today expressed concerns over changes in the UK visa rules. "The recent decision of the UK government to makevisas more expensive and more difficult is creating disquietin Bengaluru," Karnataka Industries Minister R V Deshpandesaid.
Speaking to reporters here, he said just as London was concerned about passporting rights for its financial services industry after Brexit, "we are concerned about difficulties incross border work".
"Technology is global today and restrictions like this, which prevent great talent from working globally, will inhibit competitiveness of the UK industry," he added. Deshpande was speaking at an event organised toannounce "ThinkBig 2016", which is projected to be Asia'slargest women entrepreneurship and economic empowerment summit, to be held on November 14-15 here.
Under the new visa rules announced last week by the UK Home Office, anyone applying after November 24 under the Tier 2 intra-company transfer (ICT) category would be required to meet a higher salary threshold requirement of 30,000 pounds from the earlier 20,800 pounds.
Stating that what IT industry needs was a visa whichenabled their engineers to travel to the UK, work on theprojects from 3/12 months and come back, he said they were notlooking for immigration visas but for projects as such work isglobal.
Pointing out there were also concerns relating to study and tourist visa, he expressed hope that the UK government would look intothe request.
"Together we can create a competitive partnership toaddress global markets..." he added.
The ICT route is largely used by Indian IT companiesin Britain, and the UK's Migration Advisory Committee hadfound earlier this year that Indian IT workers accounted fornearly 90 per cent of visas issued under this route. Dismayed at the UK's proposed changes in visa system that will impact skilled IT migration, software body Nasscom had sought a high skilled worker mobility pact to safeguard the economic interests of both nations.
According to sources, May, who will be on a day long visit to the city, is scheduled to hold a meeting withChief Minister Siddaramaih.
She is also expected to visitDynamatics Technologies - an aerospace and hydraulic pumpsmanufacturer and Stonehill School.
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ThinkBig 2016 is being organised by Karnataka Government together with WEConnectInternational in India and Thinkthrough Consulting (TTC).
The event will bring together more than2000 women entrepreneurs, 300 industry leaders and 400 businesses and 35 top banks to connect women entrepreneursacross the globe with the "thriving" business ecosystem in Karnataka, Deshpande said.
Eminent personalities like Lalitha Kumaramangalam, Chairperson - National Commission for Women, Bunty Bohra, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs India among others are expected to attend the event.
