Centre Eases Work From Home, Work From Anywhere Rules For IT, BPO Companies Under OSP Regime

In a move that is likely to boost and give more flexibility to the IT, BPO sector in the country, the Centre has done away with the registration and compliance requirements for companies that had facilitated 'work from home' for its employees amid COVID-lockdown enabling them to operate beyond the conventional complexes and work permanently from anywhere under the DoT's OSP guidelines.

According to the Ministry of Communications, the registration requirement for OSPs has been done away with altogether and the BPO industry engaged in data related work have been taken out of the ambit of OSP regulations, as reported by PIB.

The new guidelines by the Dept. of Telecommunications (DoT) is likely to create a friendlier atmosphere for IT and BPO companies to grow and flourish with a strong stimulus facilitating work from home (WFH) and work from anywhere (WFN) culture of IT/ITeS/BPO sector through removal of various reporting and other obligations under "other service provider (OSP)" regime and help place India as one of the most competitive and desirable IT jurisdictions in the world.

Lauding the reform initiative, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a twitter thread said, "Committed to furthering 'Ease of Doing Business' and making India a tech hub! GoI has significantly simplified Other Service Provider (OSP) guidelines of the Telecom Department. Compliance burdens of BPO industry will be greatly reduced due to this. 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!"

Committed to furthering ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and making India a tech hub!

GoI has significantly simplified Other Service Provider (OSP) guidelines of the Telecom Department.

Compliance burdens of BPO industry will be greatly reduced due to this. https://t.co/Wi0h3Bl2OC

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 5, 2020

"Registration requirement for OSPs has been done away with altogether. The BPO industry engaged in data related work is out of the ambit of OSP regulations. Many other requirements have been done away with," the Prime Minister added saying that these steps will further flexibility and productivity.

Seconding the Prime Minister, Union Minister for Electronics & IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad claiming that the government has taken a major reform initiative to liberalize the regulatory regime for "other service provider" said, "It will boost the IT/ITeS/ BPO industry and create a friendly regime for Work from Home in India."

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The reforms in OSP were welcomed and appreciated by the IT sector and several industry experts involving Nandan Nilekani, Co-founder of Infosys; Rishad Premji, Chairman of Wipro; Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India.

Appreciating the move, Rishad Premji, Wipro Chairman tweeted, "This is truly long term, progressive thinking by the Government which will make our technology industry that much more competitive. Working from anywhere has become the new reality and thank you for seeing this."

Welcoming the OSP reforms, Nandan Nilekani, Co-founder of Infosys in a tweeter post said, "The reforms of Other Service Provider regulations for BPO/BPM industry is breath-taking in its simplicity. Truly a case of dramatic Ease of Business in the digital world!"

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NASSCOM, the Association of IT-BPM industry in India has lauded the new OSP norms stating that the easing of OSP guidelines will be key in scaling innovation & growth, & making India a global tech hub.

The reform is likely to transform and make India a preferred destination for information and knowledge outsourcing furthering the vision of 'AtmaNirbhar Bharat'.