Stop the Pretence: The HIRE Act and India’s IT Challenge
By C Subrahmanyam
Hyderabad | September 22, 2025
Cartoon By: BP Acharya, IAS (Retd.)
Stop the pretence. Strip the jargon. This so-called Halting International Relocation of Employment (HIRE) Act is nothing but a weapon of economic imperialism, fired from Capitol Hill straight into India’s tech heart.
The Big Sting
Behind the velvet glove of “protecting American jobs” lurks a mailed fist — a 25% punitive tax on US companies outsourcing work abroad.
- Prime target: India — the world’s back office, the nerve centre of global IT.
- Cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Pune that have kept Silicon Valley humming are now in the crosshairs.
Let’s call it what it is: not protectionism, but economic protection-racket-ism. Pay the tax, or perish.
From H-1B to HIRE: The Double Whammy
First came the visa strangulation — an astronomical $100,000 H-1B fee to keep Indian brains out.
Now comes the outsourcing guillotine — a 25% tax to choke Indian services from flowing in.
Washington is scripting a double-edged doctrine: block the Indian worker there, block the Indian work here.
Friends, this is not policy. This is a siege.
Modi: The Great Indian Silence
And in Delhi? A deafening quiet.
The Prime Minister, who roared about “Make in India” and “Digital Bharat,” is reduced to silence when America slams the door.
Not a word of outrage, not a murmur of resistance. Blitz asks point-blank: Is India a sovereign nation, or a supplicant in Washington’s waiting room?
It’s Not Just Business — It’s National Interest
This is not about Infosys profits or TCS margins.
This is about India’s sovereignty in the global knowledge economy.
Millions of young Indians, trained, skilled, and ambitious, face an uncertain tomorrow. Every rupee shaved off outsourcing revenues is a blow to:
- Growth
- Jobs
- Self-respect
The Scoop Call
India cannot afford this mute diplomacy. The reply to Washington’s economic whip must be:
- Mobilise allies — from Manila to Mexico — who are also at the receiving end.
- Hit back with trade leverage — why should Indian markets remain open when America shuts its doors?
- Fuel a real Swadeshi Tech Revolution — not as a slogan, but as an act of defiance. Build Indian platforms, Indian innovations, Indian dominance.
The Hard Truth
The HIRE Act is not just another bill. It is the thin end of the wedge —
- Today: IT
- Tomorrow: Textiles
- Day after tomorrow: Pharma
If India blinks now, the world will know: Washington dictates, Delhi complies.
But if India stands up, fights back, and turns adversity into arsenal, then history will record that this was the day when India’s IT was tested — and triumphed.
America has fired the first shot.
The ball is in India’s court.
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