Feb. 5 – Business visa rules that prohibit foreigners from working in the country may be relaxed to adjust to the needs of the IT industry.

Indian visa rules became stricter last year to clamp down on the thousands high and low-skilled Chinese workers illegally working in the country on power and steel projects using a business visa. The new rules requires that only one percent of total workers in a project can avail of employment visas and a cap of only twenty employment visas per project.

“We are preparing a list of activities in the IT sector for which companies may be allowed to employ foreign nationals without work permits for a limited period,” a government official told The Economic Times.

The IT industry continually needs foreign expertise for training purposes. “IT industry is a people’s business and companies are globally integrated,” Som Mittal, president of Nasscom, an industry body of IT and outsourcing firms told The Economic Times. “Restricting the number of foreign nationals in individual companies would hamper activities.”