H-1B Visa Politics: US Immigration Policy and its Impact on India

The triumph of the Republican leader Donald Trump as the President of the United States has brought the political focus on immigration issues and the H-1B visa programme to the forefront. The tough posture on the H-1B programme in his first tenure has softened his stance in his second tenure with courtesy of his Silicon Valley ally and supporter Elon Musk whose company thrives on a global talent pool for whom he says “we cannot do without them…go to war for visa issue if necessary”. With Musk appointed as the head of the New Government Efficiency Commission tasked with cutting down the federal budget from US$6.75 trillion to US$2 trillion, Trump intends to make the US into a manufacturing superpower to accomplish his mega project of ‘MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN (MAGA).

United States under Trump 2.0 wants the Panama Canal

Donald Trump recently claimed that the United States is being “ripped off” by the Panama Canal’s administrators and alleged that “Chinese soldiers” are operating the canal. He has threatened to “demand the return of the Panama Canal” to the United States. On December 23rd, Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino, responded by asserting that “every square metre of the Panama Canal” is the country’s property, a stance supported by opposition parties. Trump’s actual objectives might be less extreme, but their specifics remain unclear

Moonlighting: A Paradigm Shift in Indian HR Practices

As India undergoes transformative economic changes, it is witnessing a manifold development in its labour market and human resource practices. Shedding the shackles of the past, a substantial quantum of people are finding the idea of independent contract-based and freelance work appealing, marking the departure of typical 9-to-5 jobs. For starters, a decade ago or so, a job would mean getting a task done at a designated location where one would typically spend eight hours a day.