London: An estimated 40 lakh new jobs are likely to be created in India in the next couple of years as a number of multinationals from the West are set to shift their back-office jobs to the IT-dominated country which is poised to be the world's next trillion-Dollar economy after China.

What began as a trickle eight years ago with a decision by GE, the American giant, to shift thousands of back-office jobs from America to India, has become a flood.

Household names are seeking to cut costs and improve services by outsourcing back- office processes, call centres and IT to India where unemployment is up to three times the level of the UK, 'The Times' daily reported on April 12.

"After China, India is set to be the world's next trillion-Dollar economy," according to a new research report from Morgan Stanley.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is expected to earn export revenue of $ 62 billion by 2010 - an impressive sum.

The report said all over India, gleaming modern business complexes are sprouting amid the poverty and chaos. They provide vital support for companies as diverse as Prudential, P and O Nedlloyd, British Airways, Citibank and Standard Chartered. BT (British Telecom) has become the latest UK company to outsource part of its operation - provoking a union outcry.

The pace of change is expected to accelerate rapidly this year. According to McKinsey, the management consultant, outsourcing of business processing is expected to grow by 60 per cent to $ 2.4 billion in India this year.

PTI