UID BPO services to start from July 12………Harsimran Singh
NEW DELHI: Very soon, a voice in local language could be advising you on the benefits of how to get an Aadhaar ID. The Unique ID Authority of Indias (UIDAIs ) call centre services may start from July 12 and will act as a front-end for assigning of the unique identity number.
Top IT services firms like Wipro and TCS apart from BPO vendors FirstSource, IBM, Aegis, Intelenet and Spanco are expected to bid for the project.
The government has invited tenders from large domestic BPOs with a minimum turnover of Rs 250 crore for the last three years and a minimum capacity of 2,500 seats. Aegis, FirstSource and IBM already handle the back-office operations of HDFC, ICICI and telcos like Idea Cellular, Airtel and Vodafone. Clearly, the success of the UIDAI will be critically-linked to its backend services, which may become even bigger than the 139 service of the Indian Railways. The BPO will handle all queries from change of name and address to loss of the Aadhaar number . It is also expected to act as an interface between citizens, registrars, enrolling agencies and those needing to authenticate ones ID when one applying for a loan or a credit card. Operating eight-toeight , six days a weekeven on all festivalscustomer care will be delivered through calls, e-mails , pull-and-push SMS, fax and traditional means like letters and postcards . The BPO is expected to handle at least six lakh call minutes in the first three months and so the government may have to add another BPO as soon as enrolments cross 10 crore citizens.
The government plans to pay the BPO for calls per minute. For each minute of inbound call, the government will give a specific amount (say Rs 2-3 /minute). For a SMS push, the government will pay 3% of the perminute call rate. For a grievance resolved through email, the per minute rate will be paid. For handling a grievance through letter or fax, the BPO will be paid thrice the per minute call rate.