India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS): ₹1 Lakh VGF Grant per BPO Seat — Frequently Asked Questions

Support is calculated as Viability Gap Funding of up to 50% of your eligible capital and operational costs, with a hard ceiling of ₹1 lakh for each BPO/ITeS seat you create. The ceiling therefore scales with the number of approved seats rather than with your total project cost. Several percentage incentives can be added on top of the base amount, but all of them must fit inside the same ₹1 lakh per seat limit.

Neither. The scheme's support is described as a non-repayable grant, so the money is not returned and no stake in your company changes hands in exchange for it. It is true gap funding, designed to close the viability shortfall rather than to be repaid.

Any company or entrepreneur that intends to establish and run a BPO or ITeS unit in an eligible location, create the approved number of seats, and generate employment — particularly for young people — can apply. There is no separate founder-level criterion stated in the scheme's published conditions.

No. IBPS runs on a rolling basis and stays open, so a proposal or bid can be submitted at any point through the STPI portal. That said, seats under the scheme's 48,300-seat target are finite, so there is no advantage in waiting.

Units can be established in eligible locations across the country, but the North-Eastern region is not part of the scheme's 48,300-seat target. Hilly states — Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand — are given special consideration, which reflects the scheme's aim of spreading IT-enabled employment more evenly.

Within the ₹1 lakh per seat ceiling, the scheme offers a 5% incentive where at least 50% of the workforce is women, 2% for employing 4% differently abled persons, up to 10% for exceeding your employment targets, 5% for local entrepreneurs, 5% for units set up outside a state capital, and a training incentive for regular employees.

The eligibility conditions published for IBPS do not mention DPIIT recognition or MSME registration, so neither is listed as a prerequisite. What the scheme looks at is the project itself — BPO/ITeS capacity in a qualifying location, approved seats, and the jobs created from it.

Begin on the STPI portal, which is the designated route for the scheme. Read the guidelines thoroughly, then prepare and submit a proposal or bid setting out your plan to establish BPO/ITeS seats, your business plan, and how you will generate employment. Upload the supporting documents the guidelines specify. The proposal then goes through evaluation by the competent authority. MeitY also lists the scheme on its schemes and services page at meity.gov.in.

The scheme asks for a proposal or bid plus the supporting documents specified in the scheme guidelines, so that list should be checked there before submitting. Your proposal needs to detail the business plan and the employment generation strategy. Once the unit is operating, claims for financial assistance are supported by performance reports and verified expenditure, so those records should be maintained from day one.

IBPS is targeting the establishment of 48,300 BPO/ITeS seats across India. The North-Eastern region is excluded from that seat target, and hilly states are given special consideration within it.

India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS): ₹1 Lakh VGF Grant per BPO Seat is offered by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), a government body. It is provided as non-dilutive funding.