Guwahati, Sept. 14: Aegis, the business process outsourcing (BPO) arm of Essar Group, has asked thestate governments in the Northeast to incentivise BPO players by earmarking projects to make the business sustainable.

Essar group had opened a BPO in Guwahati last year in partnership with a telecom player where it is involved in activation, customer care, collections, payment support, data services and other processes. Around 200 people work in the Guwahati centre.

In Eastern India, Aegis has over 5,000 people working across three locations spread over Calcutta, Jamshedpur and Guwahati.

"Today, the Northeast is at the crossroads of making a quantum leap into the new economy, thanks to digitisation. The government can earmark some public-sector projects for local BPO providers looking at investing and creating jobs," a senior official of Aegis told The Telegraph.

"There is no point in opening a centre without getting any work. It would be nice if the state government gives us some projects to make it a win-win situation for both the company and the government," the official said.

In India alone, Aegis now has over 30,000 people across 28 centres.

Aegis is a global outsourcing and technology services company, with an annual revenue of over $500 million and presence in nine countries, 44 BPO locations, employing over 40,000 people globally.

"We are testing the success of the Guwahati BPO centre. If it works out, we could make the centre bigger and expand the company's presence in other locations of the Northeast, thus creating additional 1,000 jobs throughout this region," the official said.

The company came on its own to set up the centre. He said the Northeast provides an excellent talent pool for customer service and soft skills not only for domestic markets but for international markets as well.

"There is potential to look at utilising this talent pool for international markets focusing around Asian and Southeast Asian markets," the official said.

The official said limited job opportunities and economical salaries compared to other cities in the country result in a sense of commitment and loyalty among IT workers in the region, which in turn results in low attrition rate and improved business performance.