New Delhi, Sept. 20 -- When I began reporting on Indian IT in 2000, just after the Y2K scare, the stories I heard were about the 'onsite dream' - an engineer sent to Chicago or San Jose, an H-1B visa that bought a house in Chennai or cleared family debts in Kanpur. Entire families rose into the middle class because one engineer went abroad. I sat in those homes. I saw the first cars in their driveways, the relief of loans paid off, the belief that a promising future had opened up. Many of today's startup founders - from Girish Mathrubootham to Mukesh Bansal - lived through those years.

For a generation of Indian engineers, the H-1B was not just a visa - it was a portal to the middle class. Families bought homes, paid off debts, and saw t...