The central government on Thursday declared new and easy guidelines for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and IT Enabled Services (ITES) companies to reduce the burden for the industry and simplify 'Work from Home' and 'Work from Anywhere'.

The new rules for 'Other Service Providers' (OSPs) would make a friendly-regime for 'Work from Home' and 'Work from Anywhere' while eliminating several reporting and other duties for such companies.

What are OSPs

OSPs are entities giving applications services, IT enabled services or any kind of outsourcing services using telecom properties. The term refers to BPOs, KPOs (Knowledge Process Outsourcing), ITES, call centres to name a few.

The new objectives are aimed at providing a strong push to the industry and positioning India as one of the most competitive IT authorities in the world.

THE NEW REGULATIONS

The new regulations would increase flexibility for these companies to adopt 'Work from Home' and 'Work from Anywhere' policies, a development specially pertinent at a time when coronavirus has forced IT/BPO firms to enable employees to work from home. The new rules also do away with registration requirement for OSPs, while the BPO industry involved in data related work has been taken out of the domain of the said regulations.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Electronics and IT also tweeted that the government has taken a major reform initiative to relax the regulatory regime for OSPs. “This will boost the IT/ ITeS/ BPO industry and create a friendly regime for Work from Home in India. #DigitalIndia.”