I've seen both ends here in the US. I've worked with some of these big consulting agencies and those guys are almost always completely incompetent, whether they're H1B's or not. Half the code is either obviously recycled from another poorly done project or blatantly pasted from stackoverflow. A large number of the projects I saw never met expectations and we're quietly buried.

On the other side, I've known a lot of Indian developers at product companies here in the US and they're mostly brilliant. I'm sure it's self selected to a degree because you've gotta be pretty smart to get a job on the other side of the world. Still, I think taking down these big visa abusing companies is good for the US and India. The good engineers in both countries will get the pay they deserve, and Indian developers will get a better shot at working at companies that aren't just body shops

How the hell does management get work done then? They fired all their devs to bring over these people, then if what you paint is true nothing ever gets done. Is the goal to keep the old stuff running (by not touching it) at a lower price? I cannot understand how that is a reasonable option for a company.

It's like saving money by not changing your oil. They don't know what the hell oil does, just that it costs money every 3000 miles. They tried not changing it one time and nothing happened, so it must be an unnecessary expense.

Like not changing your oil, it's not something you can recover from.

India has a lot of good talent too. Most are desperate for jobs and will take anything offered(Just for the opportunity).

These sheep are work horses for the political cartels, and these people do bulk of the heavy lifting as the plum money, opportunities and rewards are eaten office politicians and their minions.

Most of this kind of talent is used and thrown like tissues or they grow a brain and move to different companies.

I'm Indian, and I don't know what you are talking about. I wasn't aware that there was a big group of devs working for politicians.

i have worked with one of them and after working for 2 years learnt that they gain the most by not allowing the employee to learn or be good at it. That way a maintain a low attrition even with paying half of what other good companies pay. the overall environment is obnoxious

As long as the outsourcing companies bill by the hour, they have all the incentive to minimise wages, and maximise billable hours.

It's silly, of course, It assumes that you are building a relationship for one project rather than a series of projects. A good team means that the organization will lean on them more, not less.

They are up to shenanigans to make sure they own the market. IBM for example is trying to hire up all available cheap talent in India so their competitors can't hire enough people to fill their contracts.