The National Association of Software and Service Comapanies, expects the US government to increase the number of H-1 B visas by February following the US presidential elections.

"US companies will have trouble getting IT professionals to service its requirements if the present 65,000 cap on H-1 B visas remains. The impact of the visa cap will not be felt by the Indian software industry in the macro level," said Kiran Karnik, president, Nasscom.

The H-1 B visa cap is expected to affect start-up IT companies as they will have to apply for visas afresh unlike big and medium companies who already have a stock of H-1 B visas.

There are already some talks underway to make amendments to the current visa cap. "We will continue to work with its partners in the US to try and increase the number of H-1 B visas. Already about 15,000 visas have been freed up as the US has made changes to visa regulations of students who find jobs in the US after their higher education" added Karnik.

India would need to invest heavily in infrastructure if it has to make sure that it does not start losing IT contracts to other countries.

"I am happy if the IT jobs stay in India by moving from Bangalore to Chennai. However, we will have to make sure that IT jobs do not start moving from Bangalore to Shanghai or Kuala Lumpur," remarked Karnik.

Bangalore has recently been the centre of attention as there were some talks that IT companies were considering alternative locations within India to set up new facilities or to expand their operations.

Nasscom is organising the country's first ever India-US information security summit called 'India and the United States: Protecting the Critical Information Infrastructure Alliance' in New Delhi from October 12-13, 2004.