THE US has been an “immense beneficiary” of talent from India, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said, and voiced strong support for the H1B visa prog r a m m e , cautioning that shutting it down would “actually be very bad” for America. The US tech billionaire made the remarks in an interview with investor and entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath on his podcast ‘People by WTF’, released on Sunday.

 

“Yes, I think America has benefited immensely from talented Indians who have come to America... America has been an immense beneficiary of talent from India,” Musk said. On the H-1B visa, the Tesla CEO said, while there has been some misuse of the work visa programme, he strongly believes that it should not be shut down. “It would be accurate to say that... Some of the outsourcing companies have gamed the system on the H-1B front. And we need to stop the gaming of the system.

 

“But I’m certainly not in the school of thought that we should shut down the H-1B programme. That’s where some on the right are. I think they don’t realise that that would actually be very bad,” Musk said. His comments come at a time when the US has launched a massive crackdown to check abuse of the H-1B visa programme, used extensively by American technology companies to employ foreign workers.