



Indian firms in crisis mode as Gulf conflict escalates
Indian companies with operations in West Asia spent the weekend tracking their employees and gauging the impact on their businesses as the US-Israel strikes on Iran escalated the conflict, freezing movement from outside and within the region.“We are in touch with the client firms. The workers are safe.
About 80 workers from our side were supposed to go to Bahrain and Qatar in the next two days; and now that has halted, and so have other recruitments for the region,” said Kapil Gupta, chief executive officer of Shella Consultants, an overseas recruitment firm for oil and gas, telecom, infrastructure, and construction companies, among other sectors.More than 9 million Indians live in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain. The region attracts the largest number of migrant workforce, including white-collar employees.A war room was created to map employees based in many parts of the UAE and Qatar, according to a senior executive in one of the largest construction companies, speaking on the condition of anonymity.The US and Israel initiated joint strikes on Iran over the weekend to contain the Persian Gulf nation’s nuclear ambitions.
The action evoked retaliatory strikes from Iran on Israel and American bases across the Gulf region, including Dubai, a global trade and finance hub. Flights to and from the region remain disrupted.“The attacks target US assets in the Middle East.
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