The government has given permission for BPO staff to work from home, reports the Economic Times.

According to a memorandum released by the government, the facility will be available for companies that have been registered under the other service providers (OSPs) category. The companies will have to post a bank guarantee of Rs 5 crore ($1.2m).

The decision is aimed at reducing operating costs, and also to introduce more people into BPOs. It may also benefit women and the physically challenged. OSP covers services such as call centres, network operation centres, telemarketing, tele-education, telemedicine and teletrading.

BPO firms were facing problems caused by rising costs and were considering work-from-home schemes for employees in spheres such as finance, legal and human resources. X