SOUTH INDIAN CITIES IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT

Study Ranks Top Indian Cities

neoIT, a specialized consulting firm providing advice and governance on global/offshore ITO and BPO, has studied 27 cities throughout the entire year, and come up with a ranking that will allow clients to see which cities are best for BPO (business process outsourcing) and ITO (information technology offshoring).
neoIT's latest white paper, entitled "India: City Competitiveness," used four main criteria for determining a final Offshore Competitiveness Index: "People - including population numbers, quality and education system; Infrastructure - electrical power, telecommunications, roads, airports; Financial - cost of living, real estate prices; and Catalysts - government support, supporting industries, social and political stability, competing companies and weather."
The study ranked Gurgoan as the top offshore hub. In second place is Bangalore, followed by Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai.
A CIOL article gives us more details on neoIT's findings.

Leaders

The Leader cities have a high OCC Index and equally high performance. They include Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Chennai, Pune, Noida and Mumbai. Their current attractiveness is high, but they need to continue to work through infrastructure constraints and adopt policies and measures that will keep them competitive.

Challengers

The Challenger cities have a high OCC Index but their performance has not been great. They have clear potential and are likely to challenge the leaders in the near future. They include Kolkata, Thiruvanathapuram, Chandigarh, Indore, Coimbataore, Mysore, Mangalore, Trichy, Vizag & Kochi. These cities have all right things in place to emerge as an attractive choice however they need to package and market them properly.

Unknowns

The Unknowns are cities with a low OCC Index but high performance. These cities are clearly in the declining stage and their future attractiveness is questionable. Delhi, while once attractive is now Unknown because of increasing infrastructure constraints and the rise of satellite towns like Gurgaon and Noida.
Laggards
The Laggards cities have a low OCC Index as well as a low performance rating. They clearly have lagged behind in the race and are unlikely to challenge the leaders in the near future. Jaipur, Shimla, Bhubaneshwar, Nagpur, Pondicherry, Guwahati, Goa and Ahmedabad make up the Laggard category. These cities need to critically evaluate their competitive factors and adopt concrete actionable plans to compete with other attractive cities in the short and medium term before they are permanently left behind.

The study also posits that in time, it will not be country vs. country in the offshore outsourcing race, but city vs. city -- in other words, it stops being India vs. the Philippines, and starts becoming Bangalore vs. Manila.