Washington, DC, February 20
Two prominent coalitions of corporations, universities, research institutions and trade associations are speaking out in support of outsourcing US jobs to countries like India and the controversial H-1B worker visa programme.

“We need to face reality,” said Dave McCurdy, president of the Electronic Industries Alliance. “Offshore outsourcing is happening, in part, because once-poor nations are enacting economic reforms, educating their work force, gaining consumers and creating markets for products.”

The loss of American jobs — especially those outsourced to countries like India and China — has been a pivotal talking point for Democratic presidential candidates as well as the Bush administration.

Democratic front-runner John Kerry has described American executives who import services as “Benedict Arnold CEOs,” while President George W. Bush’s chief economic adviser Greg Mankiw stirred a hornet’s nest recently when he suggested that outsourcing was perhaps good for the US economy.

“The furore… unfortunately only illustrates our nation’s short-term attention span when it comes to the future of the US economy,” said Mr McCurdy.

James K. Glassman, a fellow at Washington-based conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, pointed out that since 1999, US tech jobs had been rising, and the Labor Department projects would double by 2010.

“Yes, IBM is hiring programmers in India, but IBM is hiring them at home too, and, as India’s prosperity increases, it becomes a new billion-person market for US goods,” said Mr Glassman.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it had received enough H-1B visa petitions to meet this year’s congressionally mandated cap of 65,000 new workers.

Suggesting a need for reforming the visa system, Sandy Boyd, Chairperson of the American Business for Legal Immigration, said: “Reaching the 2004 visa limit less than halfway through the fiscal year is clear evidence that the system needs to be fixed.”

Over the past couple of years, as the US economy went into a nosedive, protectionists and the unemployed have directed their jobless ire at a visa system that allows immigrants to work in the USA.

The H-1B visa was designed to help US-based companies and institutions fill critical vacancies in “speciality occupations.” While high tech usage of the visa has been significantly down over the last two years, use by medical institutions, higher education, elementary and secondary education has risen.

Critics of the visa say most immigrants are willing to work on lower pay eventually puting American jobs in a weak economy.

“There is some misconception that H-1B workers are ‘cheap labour’ — yet nothing could be further from the truth,” Ms Boyd said. US law requires that H-1B workers be paid at prevailing US rates. “In addition, employer-paid H-1B visa fees have generated $200 million for the training of US workers.”

A wide array of US companies as well as medical and educational institutions utilise H-1B visas to employ highly educated foreign professionals in the USA.

“Our goal is to keep the US economy growing and keep US jobs in America,” Ms Boyd reiterated. And sometimes, that requires hiring a limited number of highly educated foreign professionals to fill technical or specialised positions. “In a work force of 138 million people, gaining access to highly specialised talent is an important component of US competitiveness.”

She added: “There is a long history of H-1B workers coming to this country and contributing to America’s economic success. This drives job creation, and helps keep America competitive. Access to top talent is not a zero sum gain. Everybody benefits.”

Mr McCardy pointed out that America’s ability to adapt, to compete and to innovate alongside emerging world economic powers such as China and India was threatened in the USA by a systematically weak education system, a lack of federal dollars for research and development funding, a post-9/11 security policy that prevents American firms from keeping talented student innovators and a business climate less-friendly than other countries.

On Capitol Hill, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle’s has introduced a “Jobs for Americans” legislation, which, if passed, would require companies to report on how many jobs are moved overseas.

Chandigarh, February 20
While the banks claim unprecedented success of the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme, farmers continue to remain a dissatisfied lot. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) say that nearly 95 per cent farmers had become a part of this scheme in both Punjab and Haryana, cheap farm credit still remains a distant dream for many.

The scheme was launched by Nabard in 1998-99 to cover short and medium-term farm credit needs of the farmers, particularly in the hour of crisis. The RBI has fixed March 31, 2004, as the deadline for bringing all eligible farmers under the scheme.

A cross section of farmers told TNS the problems being still faced by them in getting credit from these banks. Mr Balwant Singh Nandiali, a farmer owing allegiance to the BKU ( Lakhowal group) said a fellow farmer had to shell out Rs 5,000 from his pocket to a commission agent of a cooperative bank, to help him get a loan of Rs 25,000 only. The higher the amount of loan, the higher is the percentage to be given to the agent, he adds.

Mr B.S. Rajewal, a BKU leader has also questioned the validity of the scheme, which according to him only puts additional burden on the farmers, in view of their illiteracy and indebtedness.

How do the banks expect him to repay his credit instalments within the stipulated time, when he is not getting good returns for his agricultural produce, he questions while adding that the minimum support prices ( MSP) of the crops stand frozen for a few years.

However, the progressive farmers, who were using the credit facility are of the view that it ensures easier access of bank credit to farmers at much cheaper rate of interest and they can time the repayment of the same in accordance with the crop cycle. It also saves them from financial exploitation at the hands of money lenders.

The figures of Nabard, on the other hand show that over 10 lakh farmers in Punjab and 13 lakh farmers in Haryana have been issued the credit cards and both the states were way ahead of other states in loan recovery also.

The scheme is being administered through the trio of commercial banks, cooperatives, and regional rural banks (RRBs). Of these, RRBs have been most successful in roping in small and marginal farmers in Punjab in terms of their targets. As per data available, the RRBs issued 41,768 credit cards ( till December 31, 2003) cooperative banks issued 7,40,445 cards and the commercial banks 5,21,446 ( till September 30, 2003) and the commercial banks issued 471,313 till December 2003. Though the penetration has been slow for commercial banks, cooperatives have shown better access and easier state control.

Chandigarh, February 20
The Union Agricultural Ministry will shortly start a marketing Infrastructure scheme under which basic infrastructure for storage, packaging and laboratory testing facilities will be provided to private companies, traders and farmers for their produce. The grants-in-aid will be made available by the Central Government for providing the required infrastructure, says Dr G.R. Bhatia, Additional Agricultural Marketing Adviser, Department of Marketing and Inspection, Ministry of Agriculture, who was in the city to attend a seminar today.

He said specialised training programmes had been started by the ministry across the country to impart information on vital areas of agricultural marketing, process of grading and standardisation of agricultural produce in the changing scenario. The department also conducted consumer education programmes for redressal of consumer grievances, he added.

To further improve the efficiency of farmers, computers would be installed in all foodgrain markets, which in turn would be interconnected with the grain markets in other states of the country. This would help farmers to know the latest rates prevailing in other markets on the touch of a button and they could also analyse the same for future projections, he said.

New Delhi, February 20
The re-rolling steel industry in Punjab and other states have called upon the NDA Government to reduce steel prices before expecting any support from the industry and labour in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

In a pre-election memorandum submitted to the government, the industry representatives have warned the ruling alliance to prepare itself for the political fallout of sharp increase in steel prices during past one year, that had resulted in closure of hundreds of small scale units, dependent on steel raw material, and consequently unemployment for thousands of labour families. The steel prices have increased by over 75 per cent within one year.

Referring to a recent study by joint Plant Committee, the Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Punjab) has maintained that though India was the largest producer of sponge iron accounting for 12 per cent of global output, yet the secondary steel producers in the country were facing shortage of raw material. Condemning the monopolistic tendencies of steel producers, the chamber has lamented that government had failed to break their cartel.

Mr P.D. Sharma, President of the Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Punjab) in a press statement issued here today claimed that the price of steel had increased by 75 to 80 per cent, by over Rs 10,000 per metric tonne within a year.