Global information technology consulting major Accenture on Wednesday said it would more than double its workforce in India to 10,000 by December 2004, from the existing 4,300 professionals.

"We are more than doubling our headcount to over 10,000 people by December next year," Accenture India country managing director Sanjay Jain told reporters in Bangalore.

Accenture India delivery centre head Chet Kamat said the company was adding new capacity for ramping up its operations in India.

In Bangalore, which provides BPO services, Accenture will add 5,000 seats by April 2004, in addition to the existing 2,650 seats, to take the total to 7,650 seats.

Kamat said the $18.2 billion firm planned to add 1,300 seats by March over the existing 1,000 seats.

Accenture Global managing partner for outsourcing, Martin I Cole, said, "BPO is growing more rapidly and there is an opportunity to bring in more work to India."

He said India was the only country for Accenture to offer voice based BPO services, besides emerging as the fourth largest employer for them in the world. However, he declined to comment on specific investment plans.

"Accenture strongly believes in high value service offerings. We start with outsourcing by only enabling capability. Offshoring to India, we are not going to be the low cost mode, but high value provider," Cole said, adding outsourcing from India was cheaper than in the United States.