IIT-Madras Director Kamakoti Veezhinathan has welcomed President Donald Trump's decision to charge $100,000 for every new H-1B visa application, describing it as a "blessing in disguise." He believes this steep increase will encourage talented Indian students and professionals to stay in India, fuelling growth in research and innovation domestically. Veezhinathan noted that the trend of moving to the US is already declining, and this change offers India a chance to build a stronger scientific ecosystem at home.
"I see this as a blessing in disguise, and we must thank President Trump for it. We must take full advantage of this..." Veezhinathan told ANI.
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Explaining his statement, the director said, "The impact is two-fold: one, the students who go from here with an aspiration to work there might not go now, and as a director of IIT-Madras, I am happy that they will continue in India."
"I believe as a country we have great opportunities for us to do research here... This is the time when students who want to go there (to the US) can stay here and contribute. In the last 5 years, at IIT-M, we have had only 5% of our population that is not in India. The craze for going to the US is gone here..." he added.
