Dubai: Even as the controversy regarding outsourcing is yet to die down, the world's seventh largest life insurer Aviva Plc today (Aug 11, 2004) said it will recruit 1,100 more people in India by this December for its business processing outsourcing (BPO) to take the total headcount to 3,800.

"We will have 3,800 people by this calendar year. At present, we have 2,700 people in the call centres in India," Aviva's Service Improvement Director John Hodgson told reporters in Dubai.

Of the 3,800 people, 3,400 would be for IT-enabled services and the remaining 400 for IT off-shoring. The increase in outsourcing comes in the wake of 37 per cent rise in profitability of Norwich Union, the brand name of Aviva in the UK.

Hodgson said by next year, its general insurance would have outsourced 15 per cent of its work abroad, including India.

The private life insurer, which has call centres in Bangalore, Pune and Noida, said the reasons for setting up a shop in India was primarily due to increased flexibility and need to lower the cost base of the company.