A study by the International Data Corporation has said India will be able to corner 70 per cent of the call centre services market by the end of the year.

The report further said that the advantage which India enjoys over other countries in the Asia-Pacific region will help it to obtain a 73 per cent market share by 2006.

In contrast, China -- widely perceived to be India's biggest competitor in this business -- will only manage 3 per cent market share this year. The figure will move up to 4 per cent in 2006.

It is the Philippines, which will come closest to India. It is projected to grab 15 per cent market share in 2003. However, this would decline to 13 per cent in 2006.

According to the IDC report, while Singapore will hold on to a 7 per cent market share from 2003 to 2006, Malaysia and New Zealand would remain at 1 per cent in the same period.

The marketshare of India will go up to 71 per cent in 2004 and 2005, while that of China will be stable around the 3 per cent mark during the two years. However, the market share of Philippines will go down to 14 per cent in the same period.

The call centre sector in the country has been attracting considerable foreign as well as domestic investment in recent times.

Domestic companies are expected to invest over $325 million in setting up operations in the financial year ending March 31, 2003, the National Association of Software and Service Companies has predicted. This will finance an additional 35,000-40,000 seats in the current financial year.

The cumulative investments in call centre companies for the last few years stood at $600 million on March 31, 2002. This has led to employment increasing four times from 25,000 in 1999 to 106,000 in 2002.

According to Nasscom, there is considerable interest in India's information technology enabled services sector.

It had witnessed a growth of 70 per cent in 2001-02 and is projected to grow at 65 per cent during 2002-03. Nasscom says the sector will grow to exceed $20 billion by 2008. This exceeds earlier expectations.

The Nasscom-McKinsey survey of 1999 had projected that ITES in India will grow to a $17-billion industry by 2008.