Last December, Polaris CEO Arun Jain was arrested when he went to re-negotiate a contract with a client in Indonesia. He spent over two weeks in jail before he was released after the Indian government took up the matter with Jakarta.

The Polaris affair set the tone for 2003 for many Indian IT professionals overseas.

In March came news that the Malaysian police had rounded up around 270 Indians, most of whom were software professionals. The detention was the outcome of a dawn swoop in search of illegal immigrants on a high-rise apartment block in the ethnic Indian-dominated Brickfields neighbourhood in central Kuala Lumpur.

The government protested and extracted an apology from the Malaysian authorities over the episode.

Within days of the incident in Malaysia, Senthil Kumar, London-based CEO of i-flex solutions' Dutch subsidiary, was detained in the UK on suspicion of visa violations.

Kumar spent over a week in custody before securing bail. By May, he was discharged after a London court ended the proceedings against him.

Industry executives say while the persecution element -- prompted by the Indian IT industry's success -- cannot be ruled out, Indian businesses must take the utmost care in visa- related issues and set their houses in order.

Text: Priya Ganapati

i-flex Netherlands unit CEO detained
Malaysia apologises for raids on IT workers
Aggrieved IT workers quit Malaysia