Government approves 9,000 seats for BPO in small cities

In order to create employment across small cities, government has given its in-principal approval for 9,000 seats in business process outsourcing (BPO) units. Information Technology (IT) Ministry Ravi Shankar Prasad said India holds 38 per cent share in the global BPO industry and stage is set for a massive growth in the sector. He added that , running BPO operations in big cities has become expensive due to rising cost of real estate and other essential amenities. To mitigate this cost factor the BPO industry should move to small towns where these overheads are lesser.

More than 50 companies will set up BPO operations at 60 locations in 18 states and 2 union territories, including Varanasi, Unnao, Patna, Amravati, Dhule, Siliguri, Cuttak, Dalsinghsarai and Muzaffarpur. Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY) Joint Secretary Rajiv Kumar said Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) have given in-principal approval for 9,020 seats and is expected to finalise 3,000 more in third round of bidding that started from Oct 3.

The Centre under its BPO promotion scheme will provide financial support for total of 48,300 seats to be set up across country with total outlay of Rs 493 crore. The scheme has provision to provide 50 per cent of actual expenditure with cap of Rs 1 lakh per seat.