IT industry faces new woes: "* The H1-B visa category was created in 1952 to provide the US economy with technically skilled foreign workers.

from today, the official number of H1-B visa’s will be officially reduced from 1,95,000 to 65,000 and though the immediate impact may not be felt, there is no denying the fact that the industry may take a hit in the years ahead......


* Almost 50 per cent of the H1-B visas issued worldwide last year by the US went to Indian professionals.

* India is also currently the second largest source, after Mexico, of legal immigrants to the US.

* Currently, there are some estimated 900,000 H1-B employees in the US, 35-45 per cent of whom are from India, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

* The US is the prime export destination of the Indian software industry, whose export revenues increased from $164 million in 1991 to around $10 billion in 2002, representing a compounded annual growth rate of 45 per cent.