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Malaysian fiasco to have diplomatic repercussions

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CIOL Bureau
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HYDERABAD: Though many dismiss this as an isolated incident and feel that it does not in any way reflect or signal any policy change towards Indian IT companies within the Malaysian region, industry watchers are skeptical.



Sources reveal that this episode is likely to set back the burgeoning software industry relationship between India and South East Asia. They say that several of those set free from Sunday’s nightmare have not yet got their passports and other important documents back.



Now, the situation is that most of the IT professionals coming from the Indian origin are demoralized and are emotionally battered by this incident.



"The government should act immediately and take this seriously, after all they are a part of our skilled pool of manpower. We have already had a bitter experience with Indonesia when Arun Jain, CEO, Polaris was humiliated," said a source.



Unfortunately, for Malaysia, this incidence could only result in damaging results for its economy, exports, and especially the IT sector. Moreover, New Delhi’s decision to take a fresh guard at the civil aviation treaty with Malaysia would be a big blow to the country’s growing tourism industry.



Apart from oozing the IT dollars, the country’s ambition to emerge as one of the forces to reckon with in IT arena may also experience a set back with IT professionals moving out of the corridor after this incident. Events like this would go down in the history and hurt Malaysia’s economy badly.



While there was no conformation on the number of arrested professionals from Andhra Pradesh, sources close to the industry believe that there is a possibility of this number to be fairly high.



The locality within KL Kuala Lumpur Brickfield has a majority of Indian population coming from Tamil Nadu and AP.



"Out of these 10 software professionals still in custody, at least five of them are likely to be from AP," said an industry source.



Meanwhile, NASSCOM is trying its best to resolve this issue and collect information about the professionals involved in the incident. It is also trying to organize help for Indian IT professionals through Malaysia’s Multimedia development Corporation.



(CNS)

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