India is expected to strengthen its status as the most preferred offshore destination of the world with half of the Fortune 500 companies likely to have their outsourcing centres in India in the next two years, according to a study by market research firm Zinnov.

According to a Zinnov whitepaper on the next wave of growth for MNC centres in India, India is home to about 200 wholly owned IT / ITeS centres of Multi—National Companies (MNCs), making it the most preferred offshore destination as against 120 other offshoring locations across the globe.

The Fortune 500 list captures the top 500 US companies by gross revenue.

The report further said currently India is the IT/ITeS hub for about 125 of the Fortune 500 companies and by 2015 it is estimated that close to 50 per cent of the Fortune 500 companies will have their centres in India.

“It is interesting to note that the reason for setting up new centres is far more strategic in nature than the tactical reasons of cost arbitrage and scalability,” Zinnov Manager — Consulting Sundararaman Viswanathan said.

The opportunity arising out of portfolio rationalisation in these MNC centres is expected to be $1 billion for the Indian service providers, Zinnov said.

The paper further said that there has been resurgence over the last two years with about 10 new IT / ITeS centres of large MNCs getting established in India in 2011 and 2012.

Companies from US continue to lead in globalisation followed by European majors. Among Indian cities, Bangalore garnered the lion’s share in terms of new centre set ups.

A sector wise analysis shows that banking and financial services companies leverage India the most for their IT and ITeS operations, followed by healthcare and life sciences.

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