This was announced by the minister of communications, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan while inaugurating an International call centre facility of GE Capital at Gurgaon here on Thursday. The minister said that India these days was undergoing a revolution in the telecom sector and the world had also recognised our country as the next global IT super power. "Our large pool of skilled manpower, have proved their talent in the Silicon Valley and the world over, the minster stated. He added, "we have the right conditions today to get the maximum share of internatinal call centre business.

According to Mr Paswan, "if we compare the growth of call centres elsewhere in the world like in Ireland or Brazil, there is no doubt that this is going to succeed in India in a big way." According to a study India could be making $9 billion through this business by 2004 and $17 billion by 2008. Mr Paswan said that approvals had been granted to 34 call centres and many more were on the way. A number of measures have been taken to promote call centres in the country. The policy now is liberal, there are no application charges, licence fee, rental or tariff, etc., are required for call centres, except for the normal rental charges for the leased lines which have also come down, he added. The minister said that government have decided to address the problems of call centres with urgency. "The demand for providing interconnectivity of international call centres of the same company to carry the overflow of the traffic has been considered and it has been decided to permit such connectivity via leased lines."