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by jwise0 3684 days ago
On the one hand, I'm happy to see visionaries like Vi Hart and Bret Victor (and presumably the others who I don't know of their work, but can only imagine to be quite good) supported to do the work that they do.

On the other hand, I am a little concerned to see InfoSys joining the fray here. InfoSys, to my understanding, are basically the face of H-1B abuse. So I'm happy to see these people funded, but it's a little harder for me to cheer when the funding comes from such a questionable source...
4 comments
vadym909 3684 days ago
Would've expected YC to know this. Infosys hogs half the highly skilled worker H1b quota every year at an average salary of $80K in effect denying many startups and founders the ability. http://www.myvisajobs.com/Visa-Sponsor/Infosys/1088782.htm

They probably file 60K H1bs if they ended up getting 30K in the lottery.

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benatkin 3684 days ago
Aren't they also pushing to increase the quota? And isn't increasing the quota a good thing?
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vadym909 3684 days ago
For one company to take up 50% of the really scarce H1b quota (65,000) is just not fair. To do it to get a lil lower cost worker is inexcusable.

I have no issue with Infosys's offshoring- only their unfair gobbling up of the H1b visas.

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keht 3684 days ago
Everyone from the Army, to the Govt, to Apple, to your medical insurer, to your bank have been using those workers. Maybe it will make you feel better if they all worked for 100 different Indian firms, but this is just more efficient. The bodyshops face stiff competition from each other to consolidate. The fact that Infosys has survived 20 years says something about the company.
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vadym909 3684 days ago
/s You need to be the worst offender to survive
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pramodliv1 3684 days ago
Infosys is funding the project for PR reasons. They're pretty active in the CSR space too. In early 2010, there was a show in India on CNBC TV18 that showcased CSR activities by these companies.

As a naive college student, I believed I could contribute to these causes too. After I joined TCS (since I did not study well and couldn't get other jobs), I realized that they had a built up an amazing PR team to attract employees and customers. On the other hand, I bet most Infosys programmers wouldn't have heard of Alan Kay. So Infosys needs to make up for the tech "deficit" by supporting research.

AS far as YCR are concerned, I guess they appreciate Infosys' funding and won't let Infosys' unethical policies affect their research.

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mflindell 3684 days ago
Infosys wants to be in on this project because its simply a good idea. Vishal is also very good friends with Alan.
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pbnjay 3684 days ago
This was my first thought on seeing Infosys too... In my experience, I've found very little reason to look up to them.

I understand it as a PR move for them, but it really devalues the concept to me.

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