Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations of all sizes from almost every industry sector are massively shifting towards the ‘Work from Home’ and ‘Work from Anywhere’ work models.
The transition is heavily piggybacked on secure IT services and solutions.
In a highly appreciated move, the Indian Government has announced to relax and do away with certain major compliance burdens for the ‘Other Service Providers’ (OSPs) industry, which includes BPOs and ITES.
As per the new guidelines released by the GOI for OSPs on Thursday, major steps will be taken and cut out (too), to facilitate a highly conducive environment for this industry to adopt friendly ‘WFH’ and ‘WFA’ policies.
Let’s learn in detail about this.
What are OSPs?
As mentioned, the Government has introduced new guidelines to facilitate a friendly remote working regime for OSPs, it is essential to know what OSPs are.
Other Service Providers are bodies that provide services in the Telecom industry, using telecom resources.
It includes Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs) or call centers, e-commerce, telebanking, telemedicine,-education, and other IT enabled services (ITES).
What Do the New Guidelines Say?
According to the new guidelines announced by the GOI on Thursday, the latter has extended its full support and flexibility to OSP companies, for adopting “work from home” and “work from anywhere” policies so that work can be performed smoothly amidst the pandemic.
Additionally, registration requirement for OSPs is stripped off in the new rules, while the BPO industry engaged in data related work has been taken out of the ambit of the said regulations.
Along with this, requirements like:
- deposit of bank guarantees,
- static IPs
- Frequently reporting obligations
- publication of network diagram, and
- penal provisions
have all been removed as per the new guidelines.
“India’s IT sector is our pride. The prowess of this sector is recognised globally. We are committed to doing everything possible to ensure a conducive environment for growth and innovation in India. Today’s decisions will especially encourage young talent in the sector!”, tweeted PM Modi.
New Guidelines to Position India as an IT Leader
The guidelines released are assuredly set to reduce the compliance burden of the BPO industry.
“With an aim to qualitatively improve the Ease of Doing Business of the IT industry, particularly BPO and IT-Enabled Services, the government has drastically simplified the OSP guidelines of the Department of Telecom.”, highlights the release.
The release also adds that through this reform, the Government indicates its support to the IT industry, with a view to attract investors in the sector.
This will in turn bring jobs and run the potential of the country’s talented youth, hence leveraging India as a paragon for the Information and Knowledge Outsourcing Industry, boosting the vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
Nasscom also has appreciated the move by terming it as a ‘bold reform for ITES/BPO players’.
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