The audio and video conferencing market in India which has undergone a paradigm shift with the emergence of telepresence as a business solution for real time communication, is expected to grow at a CAGR of 53 per cent to reach $40 million by 2010.

According to a survey conducted by consulting firm Zinnov Management Consulting, the market for telepresence in India is pegged as $7.2 million at present. Improvement in broadband infrastructure, increase in travel cost, going green initiatives and globalisation are some of the key factors that would led to this growth, the report said.

Said Pari Natarajan, CEO, Zinnov Management Consulting, "The importance of telepresence needs to be reinforced through specific marketing initiatives as it is the next big wave in conferencing. Various factors like increase in broadband penetration, the rollout of 3G services, government efforts and initiatives by the BFSI IT /ITeS sectors paint a very bright picture."

The penetration of Broadband, which is the backbone for Telepresence, is growing at a rapid pace with 3.8 million subscribers in March 2008. Besides, the introduction of 3G network in the Indian market will further boost up the infrastructure and availability of high speed bandwidth.

The report said while segments like IT and ITES would typically become early adopters of conferencing solutions including telepresence due to growth in the number of R&D captives and shared service centers, education, government and BFSI are some of the other sectors where telepresence can make strong inroads.

The government is already investing in conferencing solutions for efficient administration and reduced travel cost. Even large banks are planning to invest in conferencing to manage their widespread operations across multiple branches, states the report.

Some of the video and audio conferencing solutions providers like Cisco and Polycom are quite active in Indian market. Cisco which has launched its Telepresence solutions in India, has tied up with leading ISPs like Bharti and Tata communications, and channel partners like Datacraft to set up private and public rooms of Telepresence across the country.

Polycom which launched its Realpresence conferencing portfolio in India in March 2008, has also tied up with the government owned BSNL for nationwide roll out of its Realpresence suite.