Karnataka launches rural BPO job project

Karnataka government launched today its ambitious project of providing a lakh jobs for youth by setting up BPO centres in rural areas across the state.

The first in the series of the rural BPO centres was inaugurated at Baburayana Koppal in Srirangapatna taluk, about 15 kms off Mysore.

Continuing their commanding position, IT and BPO sectors have provided jobs for over five lakh people in the state and Bangalore alone has employed over two lakh in IT and ITeS sectors. To promote jobs for locals and rural youth with minimum computer knowledge at taluk and hobli levels, the government has proposed BPO-based service centres in rural centres having less than a lakh population by offering incentives for those who come forward to set up such centres.

It provides a one-time financial assistance for capital investment up to Rs 20 lakh for a 100-seat or more BPO centre and Rs 10,000 for training an employee. On a regular basis, it will offer Rs 500 for an employee to have internet connectivity and meet premises rental on a monthly basis.

The government has set up an experts committee to identify entrepreneurs willing to set up the rural BPO centres. It proposes to create a lakh jobs over a five-year period in these rural centres. IT and BT minister Katta Subraanya Naidu who launched the project announced that the government would come out with a new information technology policy by month-end.

It will cover expansion of the IT sector in Tier II and III cities in the state and give priority to open rural BPO centres. Similarly, a hardware policy would be announced. Hardware was in great demand and covered only two per cent, while China had taken a long leap, he said saying that this sector needed to be taken forward with greater priority. Naidu also said the state government would come out with a policy on semi-conductors. The IT parks in Gulbarga, Belgaum and Shimoga were in addition to those in Mysore, Hubli and Mangalore and would be opened by September-end.

The State’s IT exports had touched Rs 71,000 crore this year from Rs 55,000 crore last year. Karnataka’s share in IT exports exceeded 50 per cent of the total IT exports of the country, the minister said. The government had plans to set up nearly 150 new industrial units in the next four years with over a lakh crore rupees investment and job opportunities for nearly 10 lakh, he added.