Odisha exhausts quota under rural BPO scheme, gets 350 more seats

Odisha has exhausted its quota of 1,900 seats allocated under the India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS) envisaged under Digital India Programme for setting up of business process outsourcing (BPO) units in rural areas. 

In total, the state has signed master service agreements with 15 companies to create a total of 2,222 seats over and above its share of 1,900 seats. 

“The response for the scheme is better compared to other states. We have got another 350 seats to be created in the state during the sixth round of bidding. The seats are in addition to 2,222 seats created after the fifth round of bidding,” said an official. 

Companies that have signed the agreement will seat up BPO units at Puri, Cuttack, Jaleswar (in Balasore district) and Sambalpur. 

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) is the nodal agency for implementing the scheme on behalf of the Ministry of Electronics and IT. Sources said, apart from Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Tamil Nadu have exhausted their share of allocation. 

According to the latest information available with the Electronics and IT Ministry, 31,732 seats have been allocated across 22 states and Union territories against the target of 48,300 seats. 

The target to create 48,300 BPO seats across states and Union territories (UTs) is based on population percentage as per Census 2011. Metro cities such as Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, NCR and Pune, along with their urban agglomeration were excluded. 

The Government of India had approved IBPS under the Digital India Programme to create 150,000 employment opportunities and promotion of BPO/ITes operations across the country to secure balanced regional growth of the IT/ITes industry, with an outlay of Rs 4.93 billion. 

The scheme allows financial support up to 50 per cent of expenditure incurred on BPO/ITES operations towards capital expenditure (Capex) and operational expenditure (Opex) with an upper ceiling of Rs one lakh per seat.