India's leading credit rating agency ICRA is poised to enter the business process outsourcing, insurance and commodities segments through its arm Online Indiacapital.com Ltd.

The information portal, which was acquired by ICRA last year, has been rechristened 'ICRA Online', ICRA Managing Director P K Choudhury said, adding that the company has forged a joint venture with a US-based IT and consultancy firm to enter the BPO segment.

"The change in name is in keeping with certain major steps that ICRA Online is poised to take in extending its focus beyond niche markets it currently services," he said.

ICRA Online targets to generate Rs 3-5 crore (Rs 30-50 million) revenue from the BPO and other business in the first year.

"While the US company is engaged in marketing in US, the operations are being handled out of Navi Mumbai. The company has bagged a contract from a leading global software firm for providing various services including software development," ICRA Online joint managing director A Agarwal said.

To start with, ICRA Online is strategically targeting research and analysis, content management, HR, legal, insurance claims processing and back-office processing.

ICRA Online expects that the requirement for software solutions in commodities and insurance sectors would grow and provide excellent opportunities for growth.