New Delhi: Donald Trump has returned to power with the slogan 'Make America Great Again'. It is clear that his policies will revolve around this slogan. But the most important question will be how America's relations with India will be under his leadership. Also, what was Trump's attitude towards India in his first term? What kind of policies did he adopt in the matter of H-1B visa and trade?

What is H-1B visa?

The purpose of the H-1B visa program is to overcome the shortage of skilled workers in America. It is given to those non-immigrants who go to America with the intention of working. They get a green card. The H-1B visa is valid for 6 years. A person holding an H-1B visa can live in America with his children and wife. He can also apply for American citizenship.

Due to the demand of American companies, Indian IT professionals get the most H-1B visas. US government data also shows that Indians have been the highest number of H-1B visa holders in the last few years. A total of (3.86 lakh) H-1Bs were approved in the financial year 2023. Of this, 72.3 percent i.e. 2.79 lakh were held by Indians. Chinese workers were in second place, who got 11.7 percent of the total H-1B visas.

Tough stand on H-1B visa

Donald Trump had a very strict stance on H-1B during his first term as President. Trump believes that American jobs are being given to citizens of other countries. He had tightened the eligibility criteria for H-1B visa. The time taken to get a visa had also increased. Along with this, the rate of visa application rejection had also increased.

The rejection rate of H-1B applications increased during the first term of the Trump administration. It rose from 6 percent in 2016 to 24 percent in 2018. However, it then declined slightly. It fell to 21 percent in 2019 and 13 percent in 2020. After Trump was out of power, the Joe Biden administration did not renew Trump's restrictions. This brought down the rate to 4 percent in 2021 and 2 percent in 2022.

Trade policy towards India

Donald Trump believes that along with countries like China and Brazil, India also takes unfair advantage of the tariff system. Last month, he targeted India, China and Brazil on the tariff issue. Trump had also withdrawn the Most Favored Nation status from India during his first term. This allowed India to export goods to the US at concessional tariffs.

Trump is a supporter of the 'America First' policy. In such a situation, he can increase the duty on the export of Indian goods. This has a bad effect on India's exports. This can be a blow to pharma, auto, wine, textile, agro-chemical and spice companies, which export to America on a large scale. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has good relations with Trump, which can give some benefit to India.