India on Wednesday said more norms governing Other Service Providers, or voice-based BPOs, were being relaxed, and that the distinction between domestic and international entities in particular had been removed. This was aimed at helping consolidate the country’s position in the sector globally, paring operating costs for the entities and aiding them to strike synergies among different firms.
Removal of the distinction would mean a BPO can leverage the same telecom resources to serve customers located globally as well as in the country. A release said the interconnectivity between all types of OSP centres was now permitted.
Other relaxations include allowing Electronic Private Automatic Branch Exchange (EPABX) of the OSP to be located anywhere in the world. Apart from using EPABX services of telcos, the entities can locate the facility at third-party data centres in India. There will be no restriction for data interconnectivity between OSP centres of the same company or group firm or any unrelated firm.
Minister for Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad said the move was expected to provide a fillip to the BPO sector as well as create jobs. This was in continuation of the Department of Telecommunications’ liberalisation of norms in November.
Nasscom said the Centre had issued clarifications on all points the association had raised, which would place the IT-BPM sector in a competitive space. “The new guidelines will add to India’s attractiveness in ease of doing business,” it added.
