Indian software major Infosys on Monday announced its plans to expand its local hiring in the United States, saying the company will employ 10,000 American workers over the next two years. “In the fast-changing world of today, we need the ability to be local. We need to be trusted by our customers as being local,” said Chief Executive Officer Vishal Sikka, according to Bloomberg.

Plans are also afoot to open four new technology hubs across the US, starting with Indiana in August this year, reported Reuters. This particular center is likely to create 2,000 jobs for Americans by 2021, the company claimed. The location of the other three centres will be decided in the coming months, Sikka told PTI.

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Infosys and many other Indian outsourcing firms have been accused by the Donald Trump administration in the US of taking away jobs from American professionals. The US president had signed an executive order – dubbed the “Buy American, Hire American” order – in April to introduce changes to the H-1B visa policy used by companies to hire foreigners for high-skilled jobs.

The order asks the four federal departments of labour, justice, homeland security and state to crack down on alleged “fraud and abuse” in the immigration system and propose reforms to ensure that H-1B visas are awarded only to the most skilled or highest paid applicant.

The Infosys chief further said his company can overcome the problem of lack of qualified employees – a reason often cited by outsourcing firms for hiring foreign workers. “We are not only hiring computer science specialists but also engineers with software development aptitude and potential who we will train and prepare,” he said.

Indians are the largest recipients of these work permits. However, the number of applications for H-1B visas has declined for the first time in five years.