Britain's largest insurance group Aviva Plc said on Tuesday it will build a new call centre and develop claims processing operations for its general insurance business in India.
The facility will employ about 1,000 people by the end of 2003, it said in a statement.
The majority of the jobs in India will arise from staff vacancies and an anticipated turnover in its Norwich Union unit's general insurance business in the United Kingdom, it said.
"The company aims to use natural turnover and internal staff transfers in the UK to minimise any compulsory redundancies," it said.
"We are operating in an increasingly competitive environment and need to explore opportunities to improve our efficiency, while delivering high levels of service to our customers," the statement quoted Richard Harvey, group chief executive of Aviva.
"Developing administrative capability in India is part of this process."
Aviva employs 64,000 people around the world.
It had launched a life assurance joint venture in India last year.
The company already outsources claims services and software development work to other companies in India.
The statement said Aviva will assess during the year, how offshore operations can be applied to other parts of its business.
