16 new rural BPO centres to dot Karnataka's districts

These would result in creating job opportunities for 1,600 youth

To create more IT-based employment opportunities in rural areas, the State government, in the first phase, had flagged of four rural BPO centres at Srirangapatna, in Mandya, Salgame in Hassan, Gundlupet in Chamarajanagar and Shiggaon in Haveri, districts.

These were set up by MPro Solutions, Arman Infotech, Intech and Dhrithi Infotech Services, respectively. Officials sources told Deccan Herald that in the second and third phase 16 such rural BPO centres have been taken up.  The first eight will come up at Nanjangud in Mysore, Devadurga in Raichur, Pavagada, in Tumkur, Mundargi in Gadag, Chikkaballapur, Sirsi in Uttar Kannada, Hosadurga in Chitradurga and Huliyur in Tumkur, districts.

These would become operational by December-end and each will have 100 people (total 800) on rooster. The firms behind these centres are — Mysore Infotech, Spark Solution, Dhrithi Technologies, Dynamic Info Services India, Unisoft Infotech Pvt Ltd., Web Patshala., among others.

Likewise, sources said, eight others would come up at Jaglur in Davangere, Muddenehalli in Chikkaballapur, Balki/Howrad, in Bidar, Lakkeswar in Gadag, Hunsur in Mysore, Tirthahalli in Shimoga, Ilakal in Bagalkote and Shankargatta in Chikamaglur, districts.  These will become operational by January 2010-end resulting in another 800 people employed. The firms involved are Catch Solutions, Rural Shores Business Services Pvt Ltd., Tata Business Software Services Ltd., Chandan Education Society, Sanvi Infotech, Glopore IM Services Pvt Ltd., among others.  
Slew of services

Sources said these would be offering slew of IT & ITeS related services for clients they win over and the training for the staff would be to make them proficient in English besides technical related to their jobs.

Government aid
The government, they observed, would be supporting these centres for three years, after which they have to go it on own after carving a niche for themselves.
These units could be voice-based, data-based or combination of both, engaged in customer interaction, finance and accounting services, call centre and medical transcription, engineering and design data management, insurance and medical services, data management et al. For setting up of each of these 100-seater BPO centre, financial incentives of up to Rs 20 lakh and training incentive of Rs 10,000 per employee are provided for the entrepreneurs. Besides bringing technology and financial empowerment to rural youth, these centres, they said, are aimed at creating rural BPO cluster to promote jobs for rural youth with basic computer knowledge and belonging to small towns with a lakh population.  The state plans to set up 100 such units to create one lakh jobs in next four years.