Uber Chief Travis Kalanick has quit US President Donald Trump's business advisory group, following criticism by various groups opposing the new administration's immigration policies.
Trump's advisory group was established last year and includes names like Elon Musk (Tesla CEO), IBM chief executive Ginni Rometty and Indian-American PepsiCo chief Indra Nooyi.
In an email to employees, Kalanick said he had spoken briefly with Trump about the President's recent executive order restricting immigration and had told him he would not be able to participate in his economic council.
"Joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda, but unfortunately, it has been misinterpreted to be exactly that," Kalanick said in the email.
However, auto-maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is also a part of the Business Advisory Group, has said he will attend the Presidential Advisory Forum meeting tomorrow and express opposition to the recent executive order on immigration.
Uber's second-largest market is India, where domestic technology firms are worried about possible clampdown on visas and flow of skilled manpower to the US, given Trump's anti-outsourcing stance.
Industry body Nasscom, which represents the USD 110 billion Indian IT exports industry, will take a delegation of senior executives to Washington DC later this month to reach out to the new US administration as well as senators on these concerns.
The proposed overhaul of popular H-1B visa regime may result in higher operational costs and shortage of skilled workers for the Indian outsourcing industry that gets over 60 per cent of its revenues from the US.
Heads of technology companies including Microsoft, Google owner Alphabet Inc, Apple Inc and Amazon.Com Inc have already voiced their opposition to Trump's order, arguing that they rely on workers from around the world.
Kalanick said there are many ways in which the company will continue to advocate for just change on immigration "but staying on the council was going to get in the way of that".
"Immigration and openness to refugees is an important part of our country's success and quite honestly to Uber's," he said.
Kalanick, who co-founded Uber -- one of the world highest funded start-ups -- had come under increasing pressure to leave the council after Trump issued an executive order temporarily barring people from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the US.
There were also campaigns on social media that urged users to delete accounts and opt for rival Lyft Inc.
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