Beyond Layoff

The other day, I came across the story of a 21-year-old boy, Sanjay, who had hanged himself from the ceiling fan in his room after his Australian student visa application was rejected. This story highlights the deep-rooted aspiration among a segment of middle class that wants to leave Indian shores. And sometimes the price to pay for it is simply too high.  Many Indian youth feel that going abroad is a way to escape the intense competition for jobs and career opportunities in India. The sheer number of youngsters graduating from high-schools aspiring for a limited number of seats in the professional educational institutions filters out a large percentage of students. The reservation policies adopted and enhanced by successive governments at central and state levels further exacerbate this sense of anguish when youth from “general merit” category is planning for their future. It starts with reservation for college and professional courses and continues through filtering for career o

The topic of – or lack of – women in the hi-tech world is a topic of perennial discussion. The Trump administration's latest move to roll-back USCIS policy of issuing work-authorization to spouses of H1 is likely to hit women, many of them hi-tech workers themselves. The current USCIS policy allows H-1B visa holders who have applied for lawful permanent residence (green card) to apply for a work-authorization for their spouse. Ref : Employment Authorization for Certain H-4 Dependent Spouses . image source: kqed.org The Department of Homeland Security, which announced the review of the rule, did not specify why. A brief memo from the agency just said that it was reviewing the rule in light of Mr Trump’s “Buy American and Hire American” executive order. While USCIS does not track or publish data on the sex of spouses benefiting from this policy, empirical data suggest that a vast majority of spouses of H1 Holders tends to be of the fairer sex. Media reports