Lok Sabha Question No. 2108 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-03-15
Subject: BPOs in Rural Areas
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: SUNIL KUMAR SINGH

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.  2108

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 15.03.2017

## BPOs IN RURAL AREAS

## 2108.    SHRI SUNIL KUMAR SINGH: SHRI DEVJI M. PATEL:

Will the Minister of Electronics & Information Technology be pleased to state: -

- (a) whether the BPOs in rural areas are not only promoting the IT based infrastructural development but also creating new opportunities of employment in the rural areas, if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the  total  number  of  BPOs  operational  in  rural  areas  of  the  country  including Jharkhand and Rajasthan; and
- (c) the details of steps taken by the Government for promoting BPOs in the rural areas and the amount of funds provided as grant for setting up of rural BPOs?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER of STATE for ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI P. P. CHAUDHARY)

- (a) and (b) Yes, as per National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM),  the  BPO  Industry  over  the  last  few  years  have  significantly enhanced  their  presence  in  non-metro  locations  including  rural  areas;  many  of  the  new centres are being set-up away in non-metro locations. The Indian IT-BPM industry provides employment to about 10 lakh persons in BPO sector including more than 50% people from non-metro locations and continues to be a net hirer.

As  per  Department  of  Telecommunications  (DoT),  Telecom  Enforcement  Resource  and Monitoring (TERM)  Cells  register  the  Other  Service  Providers  (OSPs)  throughout  the country  in  their  respective  jurisdiction  which  includes  BPOs  also.  Separate  data  of  rural BPOs is not maintained by TERM Cells. The OSP means a company providing Application Services like call centre, tele-banking, tele-medicine, tele-education, tele- trading,  e-commerce,  network  operation  centre  and  other  IT  Enabled  Services,  by  using Telecom Resources provided by Authorised Telecom Service Providers.

In Telecom sector, country is divided into 22 License Service Area (LSA) which generally are co-terminus with States, and each LSA has a TERM Cell. As on 31.12.2016, total 10,152 OSPs were registered with various LSA including 123       OSPs in Rajasthan and 26 OSPs in Bihar and Jharkhand (details are at Annexure-I ).

(c)  Under  Digital  India  programme,  the  Government  has  launched  two  BPO  promotion schemes  namely  India  BPO  Promotion  Scheme  (IBPS)  and  North  East  BPO  Promotion Scheme (NEBPS), for creation of employment opportunities and promotion of investment in IT/ITES sector across the country particularly in small cities/towns including rural areas, by incentivizing setting up of 48,300 and 5,000 seats BPO/ITES operations by 31.03.2019 with an outlay of ₹ 493 crore and ₹ 50 crore respectively.

These schemes provide capital support along with several special incentives like encouraging employment to women and physically disabled persons, promoting local entrepreneurs etc. upto ₹ 1 lakh/seat in the form of Viability Gap Funding (VGF).  Further,  details of these schemes are available at www.meity.gov.in/ibps , https://ibps.stpi.in and www.meity.gov.in/nebps

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## Annexure-I

| Registered OSP Data as on 31-12-2016   | Registered OSP Data as on 31-12-2016   | Registered OSP Data as on 31-12-2016   | Registered OSP Data as on 31-12-2016                              |
|----------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
| S.No.                                  | Licensed Service Area (LSA)            | Total Registered OSP as on 31.12.2016  | Area of Jurisdiction                                              |
| 1                                      | Andhra Pradesh                         | 1133                                   | Andhra Pradesh, Telangana                                         |
| 2                                      | Assam                                  | 28                                     | Assam                                                             |
| 3                                      | Bihar                                  | 26                                     | Bihar, Jharkhand                                                  |
| 4                                      | Delhi                                  | 2094                                   | Delhi including Ghaziabad, NOIDA, Faridabad and Gurgaon           |
| 5                                      | Gujarat                                | 418                                    | Gujarat including UT of Daman & Diu and UT of Dadra &Nagar Haveli |
| 6                                      | Haryana                                | 7                                      | Haryana excluding Faridabad & Gurgaon                             |
| 7                                      | Himachal Pradesh                       | 14                                     | Himachal Pradesh                                                  |
| 8                                      | J&K                                    | 19                                     | J&K                                                               |
| 9                                      | Karnataka                              | 1387                                   | Karnataka                                                         |
| 10                                     | Kerala                                 | 205                                    | Kerala and UT of Lakshdweep                                       |
| 11                                     | Kolkata                                | 816                                    | Kolkata                                                           |
| 12                                     | Madhya Pradesh                         | 128                                    | Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh                                   |
| 13                                     | Maharashtra                            | 825                                    | Maharashtra excluding Mumbai                                      |
| 14                                     | Mumbai                                 | 1304                                   | Mumbai                                                            |
| 15                                     | North East                             | 8                                      | Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur |
| 16                                     | Odisha                                 | 37                                     | Odisha                                                            |
| 17                                     | Punjab                                 | 338                                    | Punjab and UT of Chandigarh                                       |
| 18                                     | Rajasthan                              | 123                                    | Rajasthan                                                         |
| 19                                     | Tamilnadu                              | 1061                                   | Tamilnadu and UT of Pudducherry                                   |
| 20                                     | Uttar Pradesh (East)                   | 90                                     | UP(E)                                                             |
| 21                                     | Uttar Pradesh (West)                   | 65                                     | UP(W) (excluding Ghaziabad and Noida city) + Uttarakhand          |
| 22                                     | West Bengal                            | 26                                     | West Bengal (excluding Kolkata) + Sikkim + UT of Andaman &Nicobar |
|                                        | Total                                  | 10152                                  |                                                                   |

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