Anthony D'Esposito, the Inspector General of the US Department of Labor, has drawn criticism for appearing to endorse an inaccurate claim about the Indian stock market. The controversy began when D'Esposito replied “Ruh roh” to a social media post by conservative commentator Benny Johnson. The post alleged that the Indian stock market had “completely COLLAPSED” following the Trump administration's decision to suspend several major technology companies from the Permanent Labor Certification, or PERM, programme.
On October 8, the US government suspended eight technology firms, including Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini, from the PERM programme. This initiative is a critical step in employment-based green card applications, requiring the Labor Department to certify that there is an insufficient supply of qualified American workers for a role before a foreign national can be hired. Johnson claimed this move devastated the Indian market and further alleged that these companies' business models relied on “scamming” the US.
However, users on the platform were quick to point out the factual errors in the assertion. A community note highlighted that Indian markets had already closed for the day hours before the US administration announced the policy changes, making it impossible for the news to have triggered a crash that day. While Indian benchmark indices did experience a decline, market analysts attributed the movement to factors such as rising crude oil prices, a rate hike by the Reserve Bank of India, and foreign investor outflows.
Social media users questioned the diligence of the Inspector General, with several accounts criticizing the spread of misinformation by a high-ranking official. Following the initial market dip, the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty rebounded on October 9. Meanwhile, Tata Consultancy Services saw its shares rise by over 4 per cent after posting a 15 per cent year-on-year growth in net profit.
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