Bangalore: The State government plans to revive its rural BPO policy to create more jobs and nurture entrepreneurship in rural areas. This comes in the wake of certain drawbacks in the existing rural BPO policy. The new policy will be based on the Karnataka i4 policy (IT policy), say sources.

The policy is being revived since out of the 36 rural BPOs that were permitted to set up shop over the past three years, only five are operational.

The scheme was formulated in 2009 and the first BPO started operations the same year. They came up in various districts, including Mysore, Raichur, Mandya, Hassan, Tumkur, Gadag, Davangere, Ramanagaram, and Chickballapur. “One of the reasons for BPOs shutting down is that the government incentives that were extended to them ended,” said Tanusree Deb Barma, Director, Information Technology and Biotechnology.

100 people rule

As per the policy, the government had mandated employing 100 people from the rural area where the company is being set up for a continuous period of three years. If the BPOs failed to adhere to this condition, the permission can be cancelled. Some industry experts say the BPOs were unable to find those 100 employable people from the areas.

Refusing to divulge details, she said the government was in the final stages of drafting the new policy. “We are consulting industry body Nasscom, which has already consulted other rural BPOs in the country,” she said and added that the government had held several rounds of discussions with stakeholders on the draft policy. The draft would soon be placed before the Cabinet for approval, she added.