GE Capital plans fifth call centre in India for BPO operations

Kolkata: GE Capital plans to set up a fifth call centre in India in about five months.

The proposed call centre will also be engaged in BPO (business process outsourcing) operations and will entail an investment of Rs 35-70 crore. It will engage between 500 and 2,000 people, according to GE Capital president and CEO Pramod Bhasin.

Speaking to newspersons after delivering his address at IT East 2002, a national conference on ITES (IT-enabled services) organised here by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Bhasin said Kolkata, Kochi and Chandigarh are among the cities being considered as locations for the proposed call centre.

GE Capital already operates call centres in Gurgaon, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Chandigarh. GE in India engages over 10,000 people. Earlier, in his address, Bhasin said India has the potential to become a leader in the global ITES arena.

“Knowledge of English, a vast pool of qualified manpower, cost-competitiveness and the workforce’s flexibility to work round the clock, when at least half the world is asleep, are among the competitive advantages enjoyed by India,” he said.

At present, of the global ITES business of over $300 billion, India’s share is a paltry $1.5 billion. “There is huge scope for India in the global ITES business. We must target a global market share of 10-20 per cent over the next few years,” he said. “A surge in outsourcing activity could be expected next year with demand from the US looking very promising.”