While everywhere from Egypt to Thailand is being cast as the next offshoring hotspot, India’s slice of the business process outsourcing (BPO) pie is only going to get bigger.

According to Gartner, Indian companies’ share of the BPO market is set to double between 2008 and 2010.

The analyst house puts the growth down to thirst for cheap BPO spurred by the recession.

North America and the United Kingdom have shown the strongest growth for Indian BPO, according to Gartner, which found the telecommunications, manufacturing, insurance and banking sectors among the keenest users of Indian BPO, with public sector and retail among the most reluctant users.

According to Gartner, the top 20 India-centric BPO companies generated US$4 billion in revenue in 2008–5 percent of the US$80 billion created by the biggest 150 business process outsourcers worldwide.