Government approves 48,000 seats under BPO policy: Telecom Minister

New Delhi: Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on May 15 said the government has finalised BPO policy for smaller towns and has approved 48,000 seats for setting up call centres across the country. "I have finalised a policy for call centres in smaller towns, I have approved 48,000 seats expression of interest will be invited soon for the purpose," said Prasad during the foundation laying ceremony of National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) headquarters here.

The Minister said seats for call centres will be divided across the states on the basis of their population. The policy aims to provide incentives to companies for setting up BPOs in small towns of the country. Prasad said currently the IT profile of India shows hubs few limited cities like Gurgaon, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Vijaywada, Bengaluru, and Mysore and this needs to be widened across the country, particularly in small mofussil towns.

The Minister said once call centres become operational in smaller towns, the demand for IT-skilled people will increase and NIELIT can provide the skilled manpower. NIELIT, the technical training arm of Communications and IT Ministry has trained 20 lakh students in the last two decades across its 31 centres. It has set a target to train 55 lakh students in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in coming 4-5 years. "A digital revolution has begun in the country and NIELIT will be the centre of digital empowerment in the country," Prasad added.