Intel, alongwith Olympus Capital Holdings Asia, a venture capital firm which invests in Asian technology companies, will also invest another 10 million dollars in Nipuna Services Limited by December, Satyam said in a statement.

"IT outsourcing plays a key role in any company's strategic direction," said Kumar Shiralagi, managing director of Intel Capital India.

"Intel Capital invests in companies like Nipuna Services Limited as we believe this business opportunity will assist in the acceleration and growth of the e-business industry," he said.

Nipuna Services was established in June 2002 by Satyam Computer Services Limited to provide outsourcing services. It currently has six customers.

US-based technology research house Gartner Inc said during the current year India's revenues from offshore business process outsourcing (BPO) would grow from slightly under one billion dollars to 1.2 billion dollars.

This will represent 66 percent of the global offshore market -- where jobs are done outside the client's region, Gartner said.

A lot of foreign firms such as airlines, credit card companies and banks have shifted their "back-office" work to India, which has the world's second largest pool of English-speaking computer literates after the United States.

Last year the BPO sector accounted for about one-fourth of India's total software export revenues of 9.5 billion dollars.

SPACE.WIRE