Prasad sees benefits for BPO giving voice-based services
Minister for Electronics & Information Technology and Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad has further liberalized the guidelines for Other Service Providers (OSPs), which would open more opportunities for the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, already rated as one of the largest in the world.
The benefits of the latest liberalized guidelines will go to BPO organisations giving Voice based services in India and abroad.
The Guidelines issued on 23 June 2021 further liberalized the special dispensation given to OSPs in addition to the major measures already announced and implemented in November 2020, said the Ministry of Communications.
Prasad highlighted that India’s IT-BPM industry was at US$37.6 billion (2019-20) i.e. Rs.2.8 lakh crores approx. giving job opportunities to lakhs of youths in the country. Further it has a potential for double-digit growth reaching up to US$55.5 billion i.e. Rs.3.9 lakh crores by 2025.
Similarly Ease of Doing Business is another fulcrum based on which series of reforms has been initiated in IT & Telecom vertical by the present Government. Also, start of one touch VNO licenses, Spectrum Sharing & Trading, Delicensing of certain frequency bands and now Next Gen OSP liberalisation is another step in this direction.
In November 2020, the OSP guidelines were liberalized as following:
Data related OSPs were totally taken out of ambit of any regulation
No Bank Guarantees
No requirement of static IP
No requirement of reporting to the DoT
No requirement of publication of Network Diagram
No penalties
Made Work from Anywhere a reality
The BPM industry revenues grew from US$37.6 billion in 2019-20 to US$38.5 billion in 2020-21, despite the pandemic. This was largely possible due to the industry’s ability to work remotely and majorly enabled by the Government of India’s relaxations of WFH requirements under the OSP regime, first temporarily in March 2020, and then complete reforms under the new guidelines in November 2020, said the Ministry’s release.
The Highlight of the Global Business is given below:
Current BPM market – US$198 billion
Outsourcing Market – US$91 billion (46%)
Current BPM outsourcing revenue in India – US$38.5 billion (Rs.2.8 lakh crore)
The main features of the liberalised guidelines announced on 23 June are:
Distinction between Domestic and International OSPs has been removed. A BPO centre with common Telecom resources will now be able to serve customers located worldwide including in India.
EPABX (Electronic Private Automatic Branch Exchange) of the OSP can be located anywhere in the world. OSPs apart from utilising EPABX services of the Telecom Service Providers can also locate their EPABX at third Party Data Centres in India.
With the removal of the distinction between Domestic and International OSP centres, the interconnectivity between all types of OSP centres is now permitted.
Remote Agents of OSP can now connect directly with the Centralised EPABX/EPABX of the OSP/EPABX of the customer using any technology including Broadband over wireline/wireless.
No restriction for data interconnectivity between any OSP centres of same company or group company or any unrelated company.
It may be recalled that DoT has already exempted Data Based Services from the OSP regulations. In addition, the regulations exempted OSPs from requirement of any registration.
Also, no Bank Guarantees were to be furnished. Work from Home and Work from Anywhere was also permitted.
Penalties for violations were removed altogether reaffirming the trust Government has in business.
Further liberalization of Guidelines today will provide a big fillip for growth of OSP industry in India. This will create immense opportunities, income and employment in India, said the Minister.
OSP reforms impact survey conducted by NASSCOM in April 2021 enumerated following important findings:
Over 72% of the respondents mentioned that they are highly satisfied with the OSP reforms
95% of the respondent mentioned has helped in reducing the compliance burden and cost of doing business in India
95% of the respondent also stated that this will help in making IT services more competitive globally
Another 77% of the respondent mentioned that OSP reforms has helped in increasing the productivity
92% of respondent stating that reforms also helped in reducing the financial burden on the companies
62% of the respondent mentioned that they will consider expanding their operation or will make fresh investments basis the OSP reforms
55% also mentioned that this will help in generating new employment opportunities and will enhance access to talent
Today’s reform will further help the BPM industry to reduce their establishment cost and creating synergies among different companies. Through these reforms more and more MNCs will get attracted towards India as a favorable destination and hence will lead to more FDIs, said the Ministry. #investment #guidelines #IT #technology /fiinews.com
