Policies encouraging investments should be announced in the budget, says Shikhar Aggrawal

Shikhar Aggarwal, Joint Managing Director, BLS International Services Limited, spoke investment opportunities in India, Union Budget and his expectation and expansion plans of his company during an interview with Swati Khandelwal, Zee Business. Edited Excerpts:

Q: Can you tell us about your company that has shown steady growth? What kind of response did you see related to investment that will be made in India?

A: BLS International is the world's third-largest in the visa outsourcing space. And, we are working with 62 governments in 36 countries. Currently, we are working for Spain and are growing by 20% annually. When it comes to Davos then people are willing to invest in India, which is a high-profile subject and it has the second-biggest delegation here after the US. We want to grow in the IT sector and have got opportunities to partner with different countries. We also want to work with other governments as well. 

दावोस में हर जगह छाया रहा भारत, US के बाद भारत दूसरा बड़ा डेलिगेशन: शिखर अग्रवाल, ज्वाइंट MD, @blsintlservices#ZeeBusinessatDavos#Davos2020 @SwatiKJain pic.twitter.com/GD3QcjsiBc

— Zee Business (@ZeeBusiness) January 24, 2020

Q: Let us know about growth plans for 2020 as your company has displayed an exponential growth in the last few years? What is your growth perspective in terms of top-line, bottom-line and margins?

A: We are growing every year and there is annual growth in the number of visa application that we are doing. We will post steady growth in terms of top-line as the new tenders are being implemented at our end. We did an acquisition last year and have similar plans for this year and the next and due diligence work is on for the same. We will be acquiring one-two companies within the same field and we will grow a lot in the same. That's why I feel that we will become a much larger company in 2020 and add more government's in our list. This is the main reason for which BLS has participated at Davos and will continue to come here. We have seen that almost every government is aware of us and we are the only Indian company that is functional in this business and this is a reason that getting lots of importance at Davos. 

Q: What are your expectations from the budget?

A: The government should make policies to ensure that people start investing in India. We are also engaged in other works and our family is also into manufacturing and the government through the budget should encourage us to establish additional factories by providing incentives for the same.