Speaking at the Annual Day and session on `Leveraging IT for the New Economic Order' organised by CII, Tamil Nadu, Mr Miller, who is also the president of World Information Technology and Services Alliance, allayed to the popular fear that US companies, hit by a recession, are cutting down their IT budgets drastically. "Contrarily, IT budget of US companies is poised to go up as they cannot postpone spending on information technology, though they want to cut the cost. This is because, the bottomline growth of most of the companies in a slowdown phase depends much on improving operational efficiency and for this IT is the most favoured vehicle.

However, he said the bag of fortune is mixed for Indian companies, which are operating in the different level of value chains. "Those companies working on the lower-end of the value chain, specifically, those who supply body, would suffer following the cost cutting by the US companies. However, the top notch companies which are into project development and otherhigher-end works, would benefit immensely as the margins in this business are to the tune of 40-60 per cent", he said.

He said US lobbyists opposing H1B Visa are actually working against the interests of the professionals there. "The US companies would be forced to completely outsource products and services from overseas firms if they failed do get adequate professionals there. This would, in turn, hit the US employment as the companies would be forced to fire workers", he pointed out.

He said, many in the US lost jobs not due to the entry of foreign labour but they were found outdated in terms of skills and technologies. "It is in view of this that we set up a worker training fund. The $100-million fund is being set up under the Department of Law by collecting $1,000 from every employer. This fund is used to update the skill of US workers in new technology", he said.