For decades, the H-1B visa program has been the centerpiece of America’s high-skilled immigration system. 

To its defenders, it is a vital pipeline that brings talented workers from around the world to power the U.S. economy. But, to its critics, it is a system rife with abuse—one that can undermine American workers while also trapping foreign workers in exploitative arrangements.

A new book, Wild Wild East: Exiled Americans, Enslaved Indians and the Systemic Abuse of the H-1B Visa Programme, takes readers inside one especially shadowy corner of this world: the universe of so-called “desi consultancies.” These companies—also known as H-1B “body shops”— connect Indian tech workers to American employers through a maze of recruiters, subcontractors, universities, and corporate clients.

The book follows the lives of Indian H-1B seekers, displaced American tech workers, and the firms that profit from a deeply broken system. It is at a story about immigration, labor exploitation, globalization, and the darker side of the U.S.-India tech corridor.

To talk more about the book, Milan is joined on the show this week by its author, Tanul Thakur. Tanul is an award-winning journalist and film critic. In 2015, he won the National Film Award for Best Film Critic—the youngest critic to receive the honor. Wild Wild East is his first book.

Milan and Tanul discuss the latter’s firsthand experience with a “desi consultancy,” the exploitation many H-1B workers endure, and the role U.S. higher education plays in this ecosystem. Plus, the two discuss how Andhra Pradesh and Telangana became the epicenter of H-1B-related fraud and the ways in which the H-1B program can be reformed. 

Episode notes:

1.        Aditya Mani Jha, “The human cost of H1-B dream: Review of Tanul Thakur’s Wild Wild East,” Hindu, June 11, 2026.

2.        Tanul Thakur, “‘Heads they won, tails he lost’: How ‘desi consultancies’ prey on Indian grads in America,” NewsLaundry, May 24, 2026. 

3.        Anant Gupta, “Indians slam MAGA ‘war’ over H-1B skilled-worker visas as ‘racist,’” Washington Post, January 7, 2025.

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