Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Now, Bangalore gets Gurgaoned!
Bangalore may have become the byword for worldwide off-shoring, but guess which satellite town tops the Garden City-turned-IT metropolis in the business? The good old Haryana enclave of Gurgaon. According to a nationwide survey of Indian cities considered the most attractive ITO/BPO services destination conducted by the firm Neo-IT, Gurgaon (100) pips Bangalore (99.6) to second place. They are followed by Pune and Hyderabad (tied at 99.3), Chennai (98.3), Kolkata (95.3) and Chandigarh (93). The numbers are what Neo-IT calls the Offshore City Competitive Index (OCC) and the metrics used to compute it include People (number, quality, education system), Infrastructure, Financials and Catalysts. Mumbai (90.5) and Delhi (85.4) are in the middle of the pack, while Lucknow (78.4), Guwahati (77.1), Ahmedabad (74.7) and Goa (69.7) make up the bottom four in the list. Current trends indicate that top supplier companies in India as well as global companies are looking at alternative cities to develop additional centres, including outside India, the report said. While competition from Chinese and Filipino cities is strong, there is a healthy competition among internal Indian cities to entice suppliers and clients alike
"This increasing trend is sure to accelerate the emergence of multiple delivery centres within India and rapid development overall," the report observed in an upbeat assessment of the offshoring trend while recording a sudden spurt in activity among Tier II cities in India and a narrowing gap between urban and semi-urban centres. The 27-city OCC index included Tier II cities such as Mysore, Mangalore, Trichy, Coimbatore, Indore, Vizag, Nagpur and Shimla. The report also classified Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi as Generation I cities that possessed manpower and other catalytic conditions in the 1990s to attract IT business. Hyderabad and Chennai are classed as Generation II cities that began their growth phase in the mid-90s and significantly improved their competitiveness. Mysore, Coimbatore, Vizag, Noida, Kolkota, Chandigarh are seen as Gen III cities which have the potential to get there. Laggard cities are those with a low OCC Index and low performance rating. They include Jaipur, Bhubhaneshwar, Shimla, Nagpur, Guwahati, Goa and Ahmedabad. "These cities need to critically evaluate their competitive factor and adopt concrete actionable plans... before they are permanently left behind," the report warned.
# posted by Tanu @ 11:13 AM 
