Fidelity Investments, the biggest mutual fund company in the United States, with assets worth $800 billion under management, has set up its business process outsourcing centre in Gurgaon, near Delhi.

The BPO centre is expected to serve as the hub for all of Fidelity Investments' international businesses.

According to sources, the company plans to bench around 200-250 people in the first phase, and has already started sending out feelers through job consultants. Gradually, the company plans to increase the employee strength to around 1,000.

Sources familiar with the developments said the centre was set up a fortnight ago. In the recent past, Prudential of the United Kingdom also set up its subsidiary (BPO) centre at Powai in Mumbai.

In November last year, Fidelity Capital had been signed on by Progeon, the business process management subsidiary of Infosys Technologies, to provide BPO solutions.

Incidentally, GE Capital International Services was the first company to initiate in-house BPO operations in India.

The company started with over 14,000 employees, who provide back-office services to GE's global businesses.

The in-house BPO segment has expanded rapidly with the entry of new players, who outsource various services from their India-based centres.

Some players in this segment are Amex, Citibank's e-Serve, Stanchart's Scope, HSBC Electronic Data, World Bank, and McKinsey.

A report on the BPO industry by investment banking firm Avendus Advisors said: "We believe in-house BPO service centres will co-exist with third-party BPO vendors. However, their export revenues are likely to shift towards the IT services model, where four-fifths of all exports are accounted for by third party independent vendors."

India has seen the rapid emergence of a thriving BPO industry, which garnered revenues of up to $1.4 billion in 2002. The industry is estimated to grow to $21-24 billion by 2008.

According to analysts, investments of over $200 million in the last three years only reflects the level of frenzied activity in this space.