Indian entrepreneurs and start-ups may face problems as the US government, under President  Donald Trump’s administration announced to delay the ‘Startup Visa’ programme until next March. The government also intended to tighten the work visa rules to the Indian IT companies.

The programme was finalised in January by the Obama administration for foreign entrepreneurs who started companies in the US to live in that country and it was set to take effect July 17.

According to a 2016 study by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), a US-based non-profit nonpartisan public policy think tank, immigrants have become founders of more than half of US start-ups valued at $1 billion or more, and are key members of either management or product development teams in more than 70 per cent of these companies. Of these, people of Indian origin have founded almost 30 per cent, reported The Economic Times.

Indian-American technology entrepreneur and academic Vivek Wadhwa called the policy “brain-dead” and a “lose-lose” for the US. “Without doubt, bringing in entrepreneurs creates American jobs and expands the economy, it is the closest thing there could be to a free lunch for the United States. This is a lose-lose for the US and for the entrepreneurs who would have come here but it will benefit the countries where they would have come from.”

The Trump administration is pandering to anti-immigrant groups rather than focusing on US competitiveness and economic growth, said Wadhwa.

As per the NFAP study, 14 Indian-origin entrepreneurs have started billion dollar companies in the US which are collectively valued at $19.6 billion.

The Obama administration’s aim was to keep high-calibre talent who visits US for studies but returns to their countries and start businesses that become huge successes.