NASSCOM-A.T KEARNEY study on 50 cities forIT-BPO growth

Mumbai, May 5 (UNI) The voice of the Indian IT-BPO industry, NASSCOM today released a first of its kind report on assessment of50 cities across the country suitable for IT-BPO industry.

Entitled 'Location Roadmap For IT- BPO Growth: Assessment Of 50 Leading Cities' the sutdy provided a detailed gap analysis along with advantages and shortcomings of these 50 locations, the available opportunity for attracting investment from this sector with a deeper objective of showcasing a roadmap to achieve uniform economic development in India. It sets the stage for the next wave of the industry's growth beyond the top seven cities.

Launching the study NASSCOM Chairman Ganesh Natarajan, also Global CEO, Zensar Technologies said the study couldserve as a panning input for State Governments, educational institutes, policy makers and local industry bodies when they look at means to attract investment into their regions.

He said, ''The Indian IT- BPO sector has been a frontrunner of economic development in select cities, providing employment to a large number of people and improving the overall quality of life and amenities like education and healthcare in these cities.'' He said it was time to spread this development to a new set of locations, provided the requirements of the Industry can be met.

These 50 locations have been broken down into different categories and for each of these locations, and even beyond them, there is significant potential to create a success story.

Speaking about the rationale of the report NASSCOM President Som Mittal said, ''The development of only a few select set of cities has put severe pressure on the infrastructure, costs and also increased migration of resources. We see immense potential in the next set of locations if the right steps are taken now. The growth projections of the industry indicate that even existing seven existing centres will see significant growth, however would need proactive planning and meticulous execution to support this growth.

He said, ''The report will provide useful information on relative attractiveness to companies who are looking to enter or expand. The dispersion of IT centres will lead to balanced economic development and reduce economic disparity. Apart from partly balancing the pressure on the top tier locations, this would also add significantly to the stability of employees and reduce migration to large urban areas. The success of each of the centres would depend upon the speed and commitment with which the local city and state governments will work to fill up the gaps identified. We also hope that the government would support and encourage development of these areas by extension of the STPI/SEZ like tax benefits as there are few SEZs in these locations,'' he further added.

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