American man reveals Indian CEO took over a firm, booted out founders, hired Indians. Post goes viral amid H1B visa debate

[Skimming]

American man reveals Indian CEO took over a firm, booted out founders, hired Indians. Post goes viral amid H1B visa debate

By ET Online
Last Updated: Dec 29, 2024,
10:36:00 AM IST

Synopsis

Debates about Indian immigrants in the U.S. tech sector surged after a viral post by a U.S. attorney. The post accused an Indian CEO of mismanagement, ousting founders, and replacing top executives with Indians, sparking heated social media discussions about workplace practices, equity, and cultural dynamics in corporate America.

According to the allegations, the CEO ousted the company’s original founders and replaced key leadership positions with a C-suite dominated by Indian professionals.

The ongoing discourse surrounding Indian immigrants, particularly those in the technology sector within the United States, has intensified following a viral post by a U.S. attorney. This post, which has sparked heated debates across social media platforms, accused an Indian CEO of mismanaging a company, displacing its founders, and reshaping its leadership team predominantly with Indian executives.

The attorney’s post detailed claims against the CEO, who allegedly took over a company acquired by a private equity firm. According to the allegations, the CEO ousted the company’s original founders and replaced key leadership positions with a C-suite dominated by Indian professionals. Additionally, the attorney asserted that the CEO leveraged the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to implement a 10% temporary pay reduction for employees and halted all promotions.

Further accusations included the CEO’s decision to lay off 15% of the workforce, targeting experienced employees, and shutting down a satellite office. The attorney claimed the associated work was outsourced to India, which reportedly disrupted the company’s culture, decreased client satisfaction, and increased the workload for remaining employees.

Netizens React

The post, since its publication, has amassed over 8 million views and sparked widespread discussions. Many users on X (formerly Twitter) shared their personal experiences, alleging similar practices by Indian executives in high-ranking positions. These anecdotes highlighted concerns about biased hiring practices and job losses among American employees, further fueling the ongoing debate about immigration and workplace equity in the tech industry.

This incident underscores the complexities of immigration dynamics, corporate governance, and diversity in the workplace, offering a lens through which broader issues of inclusion and fairness are being scrutinized in professional environments.

“My ex worked for IBM and they would send employees to India to train their replacements,” revealed one X user.

“Same thing happened at my company. The Indian CEO came in and overnight basically all of the US and European middle management was nuked. The office in India got 5 times bigger. All the talent left was pulling their hair out trying to explain how everything works to the new teams. Who then proceeded to implement 'improvements' that pushed their work back to Europe and made everything easier for them? The European teams are still delivering everything but it's harder now,” lamented another.

Another user revealed how in his hometown, an Indian immigrant came and purchased a gas station and fired 10–15 employees, replacing them with family members.

https://m.economictimes.com/magazin...mid-h1b-visa-debate/articleshow/116730663.cms

 

[Skimming]

‘I’m employed because an Indian immigrant’: American executive thanks Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas for job creation

By Sanya Jain
Dec 27, 2024 05:24 PM IST

A senior executive at Perplexity AI thanked Indian-origin CEO Aravind Srinivas for creating jobs in the United States.

A senior executive at Perplexity AI thanked Indian-origin CEO Aravind Srinivas for creating jobs in the United States, indirectly voicing his support for Sriram Krishnan in the process. Dmitry Shevelenko, Chief Business Officer at Perplexity AI, identified himself as an American who is gainfully employed because of an Indian immigrant. His post came amid a raging debate on immigration in the US.

First, some context

Aravind Srinivas is the co-founder and CEO of American AI firm Perplexity.

Indian-origin Sriram Krishnan, chosen as Senior White House Policy Advisor for AI by Donald Trump, became the target of online hate earlier this week after a number of far-right voices asked whether an Indian immigrant could be expected to promote American interests. Most prominent among his critics was Laura Loomer, a far-right political activist who suggested that Krishnan would use his influence to open up immigration for more Indians.

In a series of vitriol-filled social media posts, Loomer voiced her strong opposition to the continued use and expansion of H1B visas, which allows highly skilled workers to live and work in the US, as well as the issuance of green cards to immigrants.

“Our country was built by white Europeans, actually. Not third-world invaders from India,” she wrote.

Her views found support from a section of the internet which felt that immigrants from other countries were taking away jobs meant for Americans, especially in STEM occupations.

Support for Indian immigrants

Amid this discussion on American jobs, Krishnan – now an American citizen – and other Indian immigrants found support from various quarters, directly and indirectly. Among those who supported skilled immigration was Dmitry Shevelenko, Chief Business Officer at Perplexity AI.

Shevelenko noted that he was employed by a company that was founded by an Indian worker on a visa.

“I’m an American who is gainfully employed because an Indian immigrant on a visa founded a company in the US. Thx Aravind Srinivas for creating 100+ American jobs,” Shevelenko wrote on X.

Perplexity AI is a conversational search engine that was founded in 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, Andy Konwinski, Denis Yarats and Johnny Ho. Chennai-born Srinivas serves as the company’s CEO. He studied at IIT Madras and worked at OpenAI before launching his own company, which today has over a 100 employees based in the US.

Despite having lived in the US for several years, Srinivas still works on a visa. He recently tweeted saying he should get a green card and found support from Elon Musk.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/tren...vas-for-job-creation-101735188531259-amp.html

 

[Skimming]

How the Vietnam War helped more Indian doctors migrate to the US in 1970s

In 'Indian Genius', Meenakshi Ahamed provides fascinating portraits of Indian Americans who started the wave of success stories abroad.

Meenakshi Ahamed
28 December, 2024 12:00 pm IST

Representational image | A severe doctor shortage arose in the US as the army drained away medical graduates, necessitating doctors from overseas to fill the gap | Wikimedia Commons

When Deepak Chopra, who today is internationally recognized as one of the leaders of the integrative approach to medicine, arrived in New Jersey in 1970 fresh out of medical school in India, he got a firsthand introduction to the situation. “When I walked into the ER for my first shift,” he recalled, “the doctors who showed me my locker and gave me a tour of the acute facilities were not Americans.

There was one German, but the rest had Asian faces like mine, from India, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Korea… What had brought so many foreign doctors together was the Vietnam War. A severe doctor shortage had arisen as the army drained away medical graduates while other young men, who might have wanted to become doctors, were drafted to fight.”

War had added an additional layer of stress on the health care system. During the Vietnam War, the shortage of men in the labor force had become a cause for concern. More than 9 million Americans—mostly men—served on active duty between 1961 and 1975.

Medical personnel were needed in the war effort, adding to the shortage of available doctors for civilians. Thanks to advances in medical care on the frontlines, many more soldiers were surviving their injuries. Seventy-five thousand severely disabled veterans returned to the United States, many of whom would need years of continuing care, increasing the pressure on an already overwhelmed health care system.

Europe no longer supplied qualified doctors looking for overseas opportunities; they had plenty of jobs at home. In the forties and fifties, Indians still considered the U.K. as the place to go for higher education, but by the sixties it had lost ground to America. There was a class of research-oriented doctors in India that had reached the limit of the resources that Indian institutions had to offer. They had no choice but to come to the West if they wished to pursue their studies.

As Dr. Bibhuthi Mishra, an Indian physician recalled, “I left India after doing a specialization in internal medicine. I wanted to do work in molecular biology in DNA and immunology and although there were a few labs in India, only one was doing advanced work of an international standard and they didn’t take students. The money being spent on biological research in India in 1981 was pitiful. Many of my friends in the field who were gifted were leaving. The first place I went to was London, but there was no comparison to the United States where substantial investments in medicine and biological research were being made ever since Nixon began the Cancer Institute. The U.K. funding was limited unless you were at the top institutions. I was working on a research paper, but a group in the United States overtook me. The lab in the United States was like a palace compared to India. I wanted to pursue the work I was trained to do, so I moved to the United States Today, India has caught up, but in the eighties, there was no choice really.”

The United States had become the number-one destination for Indian graduates in STEM fields, but there were other reasons why America was such an attractive destination. It was a country of immigrants and a more welcoming environment for immigrants from India. Sanjiv Chopra, who rose to become a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, followed his older brother, Deepak to Boston in the seventies.

He observed, “Our father’s generation had gone to England to complete their training, but they had encountered a British ceiling. Indian doctors in England were allowed to rise to only a certain level, and when they returned to India they were behind their classmates in seniority and only rarely caught up… When people asked us what our plans were when we finished medical school, America was the obvious answer.”

Initially, some Indian-trained doctors had gone to the U.K., but the attraction of opportunities in the United States convinced many of them to move.

The most pressing need for doctors in the United States was among its most run-down or underserved populations, who resided primarily in cities or in rural areas like Appalachia. The 1960s saw a precipitous decline in urban areas of its wealthier, white population who were leaving en masse for the suburbs. This left urban areas with a lower tax base and far fewer resources as businesses followed suit and urban decay set in.

The shift to the suburbs had been facilitated by the massive highway-building program undertaken by the government after World War II, which had the ancillary benefit of making it easier for people to commute. The I bill had created opportunities for its white beneficiaries,63 and the relocation of businesses outside of urban centers had extended communities outwards. The migration of African American Southerners to the North that increased during this period combined with desegregation and the race riots in the sixties, contributed to what was called “white flight”—the white population moving out of cities in droves.

Wealthy, well-resourced hospitals moved with their clients to the suburbs, the preferred place for many doctors to practice. It was not easy for a hospital in downtown Newark or Detroit, still burning from the race riots, to attract a well-to-do white graduate of Harvard Medical School to practice there.

https://theprint.in/pageturner/how-vietnam-war-helped-indian-doctors-migrate-us-1970s/2420941/

 

[Skimming]

Folks,

Just zoom in and look at their beautiful smiles.. So cute.. So sweet..!!

 

[DoTell]

We sell American our products. You take over their middle class jobs. You my Indian brothers and sisters, are the true kings of the jungle

 

[Novus ordu seclorum]

In America there are anti discrimination laws in the corporate world, and probably for all businesses above a certain size, so they don't have hiring biases from the same race, ethnicity, or religion. That is how it should be.

 

[Skimming]

'There is a permanent shortage...': Elon Musk challenges claims of foreign talent displacing US tech workers

Musk weighs in on tech talent debate amid backlash over foreign worker policies.

Pranav Dixit
Updated Dec 29, 2024, 9:08 AM IST

Elon Musk

Elon Musk has sparked conversation around the perennial debate on foreign-born workers in the US tech industry, responding to claims that they might be taking jobs from native-born Americans. The discussion was initiated by Amjad Masad, CEO of Replit, an online platform for coding, who questioned the validity of such allegations.

Masad posted on X (formerly Twitter), “Genuinely curious: Are there actual instances where qualified native-born Americans couldn’t get jobs in tech because foreigners took all of them? I’d be surprised if it’s true because at any given point there are hundreds of thousands of unfilled jobs in tech.”

Responding to Masad, Musk dismissed the notion of job displacement by foreign talent, highlighting the chronic scarcity of skilled engineers in Silicon Valley. “There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent. It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley,” he wrote.

Musk’s remarks align with ongoing discussions in the tech industry about the need for diverse talent pools to address a growing demand for skilled professionals in areas like artificial intelligence, software engineering, and data science.

The conversation gains significance amidst controversy over the appointment of Indian-American businessman Sriram Krishnan as a senior policy advisor on artificial intelligence in the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

While some hail Krishnan’s appointment as a step forward for AI policy, others argue that foreign workers, particularly those on H-1B visas, are being hired at lower wages, allegedly displacing American talent.

Musk rejected this perspective, labelling it as a “fixed pie” fallacy. “There is essentially infinite potential for job and company creation. Think of all the things that didn’t exist 20 or 30 years ago!” he said, urging a focus on innovation and growth rather than competition for existing roles.

'There is a permanent shortage...': Elon Musk challenges claims of foreign talent displacing US tech workers

Musk weighs in on tech talent debate amid backlash over foreign worker policies.

www.businesstoday.in

 

[Skimming]

Elon Musk Says H-1B Visa System "Broken", Days After "Will Go To War" Promise



Elon Musk and Indian-American tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have recently clashed with supporters of Donald Trump over the issue of immigration and H-1B visas.



Edited by: Pushkar Tiwari | World News

Dec 30, 2024 09:21 am IST





Elon Musk said H-1B visa system can be "easily fixed"



Days after vowing to "go to war" to defend the H-1B visas, tech billionaire Elon Musk on Sunday said the system, which is used to bring skilled foreign workers to the US, is "broken" and needs a "major reform".



Mr Musk and Indian-American tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have recently clashed with supporters of US President-elect Donald Trump over the issue of immigration.



Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy, who are set to be part of the incoming Trump administration, have backed the H-1B visa program.



In response to a post on X, the social media site he owns, Mr Musk said he has "been very clear" that the program is "broken" and "needs major reform". He was responding to a user who said the US needs to be a destination for the "world's most elite talent", but the H-1B program "isn't the way to do that".



Mr Musk, who himself migrated from South Africa on an H-1B, said the system can be "easily fixed" by raising the minimum salary significantly and adding a yearly cost for maintaining the H-1B, making it "materially more expensive to hire from overseas than domestically".



Last week, Mr Musk said bringing elite engineering talent from abroad was "essential for America to keep winning."



Mr Ramaswamy, the son of Indian immigrants, also echoed Mr Musk's sentiments. He argued that the US culture has long celebrated "mediocrity over excellence".



"A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ... will not produce the best engineers," he posted on X.



Debate Over H-1B Visas



Many of Donald Trump's supporters have been increasingly pushing for scrapping the H-1B visa programme amid debate over immigration. The matter flared up after Trump chose Indian-American entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence policy in his coming administration.



Laura Loomer, a right-wing influencer, criticised Trump's selection, along with far-right figures like Ann Coulter and former Congressman Matt Gaetz.



She accused Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy of undermining American workers.



One viral post on X accused Mr Krishnan as an "India First" operative whose goal was to "replace American workers."



"Looking forward to the inevitable divorce between President Trump and Big Tech," Ms Loomer, a MAGA figure known for her conspiracy theories, said.



"We have to protect President Trump from the technocrats," she said.



Mr Musk fired back at his critics and warned of a "MAGA civil war."



He also swore at one critic, saying, "I will go to war on this issue."



Trump Backs Musk In H-1B Visa Debate



Donald Trump has sided with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in the public dispute over the use of the H-1B visa, saying he fully backs the program for foreign tech workers opposed by some of his supporters.



Trump, who moved to limit the visas' use during his first presidency, told The New York Post on Saturday he was likewise in favour of the visa program.



"I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I've been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It's a great program," he was quoted as saying.

Elon Musk Says H-1B Visa System "Broken", Days After "Will Go To War" Promise

Elon Musk and Indian-American tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have recently clashed with supporters of Donald Trump over the issue of immigration and H-1B visas.

www.ndtv.com

 

[Skimming]

Amid immigration debate in MAGA camp, Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu cracks the code on rising talent migration from India

2 min read
30 Dec 2024, 02:38 PM IST

Riya R Alex

Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho, highlights that talent migration in India is a result of rising aspirations during economic growth. He compares this trend to historical patterns in Korea and China, stating that such migration signifies progress.

Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu believes that the rising talent migration from India is not a symptom of hopelessness.

Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu has expressed several reasons for talent migration out of India. In a post on LinkedIn, Vembu said that the rising number of people migrating from India is not a concern amid the MAGA debate regarding an issue between certain factions of President-elect Donald Trump’s supporters over immigration policies.

Vembu explained the migration patterns in Korea and China.

“First, historic patterns. Talent migration from Korea/Taiwan to the US peaked in the 1970s and 80s (Japanese migration to the US peaked much earlier), talent migration from China peaked about 10 years ago. That was the time of rapid development and transformation of those nations," Vembu wrote.

According to Vembu, talent migration is very high during a phase of rapid development in a country.

“When a country is extremely underdeveloped, talent migration is very low. When a country is very wealthy, talent migration is also very low. Talent migration peaks during the period of rapid development," he said.

A similar pattern can be observed in Silicon Valley as well.

“This is observable in Silicon Valley where migrants from India now well outpace those from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan," he added.

According to Vembu, people's growing aspirations result in rapid economic growth, which in turn results in restlessness. Such restlessness boosts migration. This pattern is currently being observed in India.

What is the reason?

“Why does this happen? Rapid economic development is preceded by and happens due to rising aspiration levels; and talent migration also happens due to rising aspiration levels. Our aspirations necessarily race ahead of reality and it is precisely during the period of rapid growth that we have the most restless people, and it is the restless spirits who tend to migrate. We can observe that restlessness in India, particularly in urban tech centres," Vembu posted.

However, he said, this migration slows down once an economy realises its full potential.

“Eventually when the full economic potential is realised, talent migration slows down or stops entirely. This pattern has been seen repeatedly," he added.

“As late as the 1980s, Japanese still refused to believe Japan had achieved parity with the West. Same with Korea in the late 1990s," Vembu wrote.

“I predict that even in 2035 with a per capita GDP upwards of $10K, Indians will likely lament how far behind we are. The last stage of catch up happens quickly over a decade (witness China is the last decade) but the foundations have to be laid over many previous decades and those previous decades feel like a slog. We are slogging through that now in India. To summarise, rising talent migration from India is not a symptom of hopelessness, it is the opposite," the Zoho CEO added.

https://www.livemint.com/companies/...-migration-from-india/amp-11735547761687.html

 

[Skimming]

Indian Govt on alert over H-1B row, taking feedback from IT firms

Pankaj Doval | TNN | Dec 31, 2024, 05:32 IST

The Indian government is vigilantly monitoring the situation of Indian H-1B visa holders in the US amid backlash and profiling of IT and management professionals. This involves collaboration between the ministries of external affairs, commerce, and IT to ensure that legal Indian workers are not adversely impacted by evolving American visa policies under Donald Trump's administration.

NEW DELHI: Government is keeping a close watch of the backlash against Indian H-1B visa holders in the US and profiling of IT and management professionals, and the developments are being closely monitored by the ministry of external affairs and commerce department apart from the IT ministry, to ensure there is no "unpleasant issue" against those working legally.

"We shouldn't have a situation where there is an unpleasant issue which is created for our Indian workers who are (working) there legally. That is something that the government is constantly concerned about," a government source told TOI. The IT ministry is also involved in the process and is taking feedback from large software companies as well as relevant industry associations such as Nasscom to undersrtand the situation on the ground, the sources added.

"We would like to make sure that our competitive position in that regard is not affected. And definitely that other factors should not come in the way of legal frameworks, even from an American setup," the sources said.

Government is also keeping a watch on how the American visa policies, especially for IT and tech, management, and other qualified professionals, evolves as Donald Trump returns to White House.

"So to that extent, we don't want to look at it as more restrictions and so on. We have to look at it as how the American policy also pans out," a source said. The sources said that the government also wants to highlight how multi-national companies - including from the US - are setting up global capability centres (GCCs) in India, in a clear pointer to the need to have qualified Indian professionals in their midst. The fact that they are setting up GCCs in India shows that they are keen to hire qualified Indian workers for cutting-edge work, they added.

MEA is taking updates from the Indian mission in the US, to have a better grip on the situation.

There has been a massive backlash in the US after Trump announced the appointment of Chennai-born Sriram Krishnan as Senior White House Policy Advisor on AI, with people such as far-right activist Laura Loomer claiming that H-1B visa holders are taking away jobs from qualified Americans which is against the "America First" agenda of the incoming Republican dispensation.

However, as a controversy started to build up, Loomer's attacks were rebuffed by none other Trump himself, and also by Elon Musk - a top American businessman and a close confidante of the incoming President. Speaking to the New York Post, Trump said, "I've always liked the visas, I have always been in favour of the visas. That's why we have them... I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I've been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It's a great program."

Govt on alert over H-1B row, taking feedback from IT firms - Times of India

The Indian government is vigilantly monitoring the situation of Indian H-1B visa holders in the US amid backlash and profiling of IT and management professionals. This involves collaboration between the ministries of external affairs, commerce, and IT to ensure that legal Indian workers are not...

timesofindia.indiatimes.com