Indian BPO market to hit $8.8 bn by 2025 amid liberalised regime

As India reopens, the enterprise spending on business process outsourcing (BPO) services in India is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.8 per cent to reach $8.8 billion by 2025, driven by huge push for outsourcing knowledge-based and vertical-specific processes, a new report showed on Wednesday.

According to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, the BPO market in India is now supported by the country’s efforts to liberalise regulatory guidelines for the BPO industry in recent times to ward off competition from countries like the Philippines, Malaysia, Mexico, and Canada.

“The country’s expertise in providing knowledge-based and vertical specific services, particularly in areas such as healthcare, life sciences, banking, insurance, legal processing, risk management, financial research, research and analytics, and digital marketing, are expected to drive growth during the forecast period,” GlobalData senior technology analyst Pragyan Tarasia said.

In June this year, the government liberalised guidelines for voice-based BPO firms (classified under other service providers (OSP)) by removing distinction between domestic and international service centres and allowing interconnectivity between all types of OSP centres.

Besides, providing ease of work for their employees who relocated to remote areas after the pandemic and enabling them to work from anywhere will also help BPO firms to improve scale and speed of services.

In November 2020, the government had simplified BPO and ITES guidelines to ease the compliance burden on service providers and establish the ‘Work-From-Home’ and ‘Work-From-Anywhere’ framework.

“The new guidelines will go a long way in enabling ease of doing business for the industry and establishing the country as the most preferred hub for BPO services in the world,” said Tarasia.

Enterprise spending on finance and accounting BPO segment, on the other hand, will grow at a fastest CAGR 9.6 per cent during the forecast period.

The large enterprise segment (1,000+ employees) will account for largest share of the total BPO spending in India through the forecast period.

“The combined spending from micro (1-50 employees), and small and medium enterprises (51-1,000 employees), on the other hand, will increase at a CAGR of 5.8 per cent over the forecast period,” said Tarasia.