Chinese companies are suspending construction of power plants in India due to restrictions on the import of skilled labor, the Financial Times reported. According to a Chinese official based in Delhi, as many as 10 companies have been forced to stop work on projects because they aren’t able to bring in enough Chinese workers. According to regulations introduced in India last year, only 1% of a project’s workforce can be foreign and there is a limit of 40 skilled workers for power projects. This is partly to appease concerns that India is becoming overly reliant on Chinese-made infrastructure – there is a political argument that India should become more self-sufficient to defend itself from any future Chinese aggression. At the same time, India wants to add 10,000 megawatts of power generation capacity to its grid in the current fiscal year, which runs until the end of March. Some insist that foreign expertise is required to meet this and other energy goals.
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