"India is the largest of Accenture's offshore centres in the world and we currently employ 4,300 people," said Martin Cole, managing partner of Accenture.

"India is also the only centre in the world where voice outsourcing services are done for the company today," Cole told reporters in the southern city of Bangalore, India's technology capital.

The firm, which has 40 global offices around the world, including North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, has its Indian consulting and outsourcing bases in Delhi, Bombay and Bangalore, which serve 80 global clients of Accenture.

"The company has tripled growth in the past two years and will double it during the next 12 to 14 months," Cole said.

He said three centres would be operational next year in Bombay and three in Bangalore for the new employees.

"Outsourcing business is growing more broadly and there are significant opportunities to bring in new type of work to India," Cole said.

"India is a viable solution for our clients and it will continue to grow," Cole said. "China, Philippines and India are the three major markets."

"The single most significant advantage in India is the large number of highly qualified people. The (labour) costs are comparable to Philippines and higher than China.

"But China does not have such a high number of English-speaking people," he said.

Many global corporations from the US and Britain have outsourced their work to India to gain advantage of labour costs, although there have been protests over job losses in those countries.

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