
The United States said that it has no plans to capH-1B work visas for nations that "force foreign companies to store data locally."
The development comes days ahead of US Secretary of state Mike Pompeo's India visit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump are also set to meet on the sidelines of G20 summit in Japan on June 28-29.
The State Department in a statement said, "Trump Administration’s buy American Hire American Executive Order called for a broad review of US worker visa programs, including the H-1B program."
Clarifying, the review is "not targeted at a specific country" and is "completely separate from our ongoing discussions with India about the importance of ensuring the free flow of data across borders."
US had raised concerns over India's data localisation along with other issues.
Ministry of external affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, India, "remains engaged with the US administration, with US Congress, emphasised time and again at high-level interaction, the contribution of Indian skilled professionals to growth and development of US economy"
On data localisation, he said, New Delhi remains engaged with the US "and see how we can dispel any misconception on data localisation."
Data localisation is the use of data of a country's nationals on how it is collected and stored within the country or sent outside.
New Delhi has been saying that US companies should store data of Indian nationals in India.