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India's Top Tech Cities

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DQI Bureau
New Update

This happened a few years back during the Nasscom opening ceremony in Mumbai.

The Maharashtra CM was waxing eloquent on how Mumbai has emerged as a top IT hub

in the country and how other cities in Maharashtra too are ahead of their

counterparts in terms of IT adoption. Subsequently, there was a mild rebuke by

the then Union Minister for IT, Pramod Mahajan, who said that states should

concentrate not on outgunning each other in IT adoption, but in helping build a

resurgent IT country.

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For a national level politician, Mahajan might have little option to say

otherwise, but almost everyone would agree that it is Utopian to think of

different states not competing against each other in winning IT laurels. This

explains the rationale behind conducting the recent DQ-IDC survey on Top IT

cities in the country, conducted across 35 cities spanning 16 states. Barring a

few pleasant surprises the results arrived at were on expected lines.

Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi/NCR bagged the top five

positions in the overall ranking. One need not be an Einstein to guess so, since

these cities have been on the vanguard of IT revolution in the country from the

beginning and are today thriving hubs of IT and BPO activities. In our survey,

Delhi included partially the NCR region-Gurgaon and Noida were considered as

part of Delhi only as these are today's IT hotspots.

Ranks Cities Total

Score
1 Bangalore 66.2
2 Hyderabad 58.7
3 Mumbai 58.7
4 Chennai 58.6
5 Delhi 57.8
6 Pune 53
7 Nagpur 48.9
8 Kolkata 47.1
9 Lucknow 44.3
10 Coimbatore 42.7
11 Kochi 42.3
12 Ludhiana 40.3
13 Vadodara 37.7
14 Jamshedpur 37.7
15 Allahabad 35.9
16 Nashik 35
17 Agra 34.6
18 Madurai 34.4
19 Jaipur 33.6
20 Visakhapatnam 33.6
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While the Top Five were on expected lines, it was the Next

Six in the overall ranking that did throw up a surprise. While Pune, Kolkata and

Kochi were expected to be in the list, having emerged as new IT hubs in the last

two years and as challengers to the leaders, the surprise inclusions were Nagpur

and Lucknow. Not really tom-tommed as great centers of IT activities, these

cities perhaps owed their positions to their thriving reseller communities.

Moreover, while these cities have the potential, they are yet to take off in a

big way given that they have competition from other cities within their own

states. For example, Pune edges out Nagpur in terms of mindshare amongst top IT

decision makers, Noida is always preferred to Lucknow. Also, as respective state

governments sell their states, they too would talk about second line cities like

Pune rather than sell other destinations, irrespective of the potential of the

city.

The

Zonal Stack up

N o

r t h

S

No
Cities Overall

Rank
1 Delhi

(NCR)
5
2 Lucknow 9
3 Ludhiana 12
4 Allahabad 15
5 Agra 17
S

o u t h
1 Bangalore 1
2 Hyderabad 2
3 Chennai 4
4 Coimbatore 10
5 Kochi 11
E

a s t
1 Kolkata 8
2 Jamshedpur 14
3 Patna 23
4 Dhanbad 33
5 Asansol 34
W

e s t
1 Mumbai 3
2 Pune 6
3 Nagpur 7
4 Nashik 16
5 Vadodara 35

Just as Nagpur and Lucknow, along with cities like Coimbatore,

Ludhiana and Jamshedpur, had a pleasantly strong showing, some cities scored

fairly lower than expected. Notwithstanding the advertising and marketing blitz

by the Gujarat government, Ahmedabad came up at a poor #24rank. A shockingly low

ranking of #31 on the manpower front and #15 on ICT infrastructure pulled the

city down-it would need immediate remedial measures to pull up its position

next year. In fact, Ahmedabad was not even the number one IT city in Gujarat;

that position went to Vadodara. Jaipur and Indore too finished lower than

expected at #19 and #21 respectively-with GE endorsing Jaipur and CSC Indore,

these results were indeed surprising.

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The overall rankings of different cities also show the IT

health of certain states across the country. Maharashtra comes forth in a very

favorable light. Three cities in the state-Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur-featured

in the Top Ten in overall ranking, while Nashik came a creditable #16. UP

featured the maximum in the survey with six cities, but had mixed results-while

Lucknow finished in the Top Ten, Allahabad and Agra languished in the #15 and

#17 positions respectively; Varanasi and Kanpur turned out to be real laggards

at #29 and #30 respectively.

Dataquest does not claim the DQ-IDC survey to be the ultimate

last word, but it is definitely creditable as a first attempt. The survey could

not be conducted at some obvious cities like Chandigarh, Bhubaneshwar or Raipur,

but that does not reduce its importance and veracity. More importantly, we would

definitely contrive to include these cities in our survey next year. Also

conspicuous by their absence this time were the North-Eastern cities like

Guwahati, Shillong and Gangtok, where automation is gradually spreading its

tentacles. The DQ-IDC survey definitely contemplates including them next time.

Manpower Availability

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No doubt this was the most important parameter in the survey,

carrying the maximum weightage. The specific points considered under this

parameter were the SEC A population living in the city, the share of the SEC

A/B/C population that is conversant with English, the number of engineering

colleges in the state and, more particularly, in that city as well as the share

of graduates in the population and the ratio of number of schools to the

district population. The Sec A population living in the city and the share of

population speaking english were given more weightage in the survey. This is how

Hyderabad, scoring more than Chennai on both counts, took the #2 position.

Not surprisingly again, the Southern cities rode high on the

manpower count-Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai occupied the top three slots,

thanks to the high number of engineering colleges in their respective states as

well as the share of the entire population that speaks and reads English. Pune

follows the three Southern cities, largely bolstered by the number of

engineering colleges in Maharashtra, particularly in the hinterland around the

city. One particular trend noticed here that was most welcome was that most

cities with a high SEC A population and a higher ratio of graduates also show

more English-speaking people. And though some evangelists can keep harping on

the need for championing local language computing, very few can deny the role of

English in the spread of an IT environment.

Again,

the survey reiterates the popular belief that conversational fluency in English

is more prevalent outside the overall North region. Cities scoring high on this

front were all from the East and South-Kolkata followed by Bangalore, Kochi,

Jamshedpur and Hyderabad. Another popular perception also turned out to be

accurate-that preponderance of engineering colleges has helped the Southern

cities in reaching the vanguard of Indian IT. The three Tamil Nadu cities of

Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai scored a perfect 10 on this front.

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Ranks
1 Bangalore
2 Hyderabad
3 Chennai
4 Pune
5 Lucknow

ICT Infrastructure Availability & Usage



After manpower, infrastructure is perhaps the most crucial component in

determining IT health. Even the DQ-IDC survey on Top IT cities takes this into

account as this parameter received the second highest billing in terms of

weightage. PC penetration and, consequently, Internet penetration showed how

up-to-date the populace was in IT adoption.

While Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad were the expected toppers, the

surprise inclusion in the Top Five in this parameter was Nagpur-the only city

amongst the 35 in the overall survey to score a perfect 10 on the PC penetration

front. In fact, it was PC penetration along with engineering colleges that

catapulted Nagpur into the Top Ten in the overall ranking, and gave it the #7

slot pushing Kolkata to #8. It also explains the emergence of a thriving

reseller community in the city in the last couple of years. Other than Nagpur, a

number of smaller cities like Jamshedpur, Kochi and Vadodara also figured in the

Top Ten on infrastructure-this confirms that it is not only metros that can

boast of top-notch infrastructure.

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However,

city-wise spending on IT products is still a matter of concern-barring Delhi

and Mumbai, other metros like Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata barely pass muster

on this front. Smaller cities like Asansol, Meerut, Varanasi, Patna and

Jamshedpur turned out to be total laggards in IT expenditure. Internet

penetration threw up some interesting results-while Bangalore at a perfect ten

was no surprise, the high scores of Jamshedpur and Kochi pulled up their overall

rankings. Ludhiana topped in the frequency of Internet access followed by Delhi

and Vadodara-perhaps the large NRI population of Punjabis and Gujaratis, into

e-mails and chats, accounted for the great figures.

Ranks
1 Bangalore
2 Delhi

(NCR)
3 Mumbai
4 Hyderabad
5 Nagpur

Not surprisingly again, Mumbai and Delhi topped the charts in the PC

installed base, but Kolkata coming in third, ahead of Bangalore and Chennai,

bucked the normal trend. Perhaps increasing levels of automation by the West

Bengal government and a now growing market, after years of neglect, explains

this. However, smaller cities like Amritsar, Meerut, Madurai, Asansol and

Vijaywada need to ramp up quickly on this front, if they do not want to be left

behind in the IT revolution sweeping across the country.

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Industrial Performance



This parameter takes into account factors like bank credit-deposit ratio and

bank deposit per capita. While the former denotes the level of industrialization

in a city, being an indicator frequently used by investors and economists, the

latter indicates the affluence level and disposable income of the population.

Apparently these might not look related, but observers agree that they do have a

direct bearing on the IT health of any particular location. The best example is

Mumbai-belying popular perception that the country's financial nerve center

is not so hot in IT, the strong results in industrial performance have enabled

the city to leapfrog Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad to come at #2 in the overall

ranking.

The

survey results indicate that only Mumbai and Delhi can really be termed affluent-a

few other metros are merely scratching the glass ceiling. Here too,

surprisingly, Kolkata is ahead of the usual pack of Bangalore, Chennai and

Hyderabad. Nashik, Madurai, Jabalpur, Dhanbad and Meerut stand on the other side

of the affluence spectrum. It is not that the populace does not have enough

disposable income in today's consumerist society, the question is often of

development. Typically, these cities have been traditionally ignored on this

front and unless rectifying measures are taken soon things would not improve

much.

Chennai got a perfect ten in the bank credit-deposit ratio-again

verifying the long-believed fact that cutting aside the hype of Bangalore and

Hyderabad, it is the most industrialized city in the country. A thriving local

industry in any sector helps-perhaps best explaining why textile and woolen

garment centers like Coimbatore and Ludhiana rank in the top five on this count.

Patna, Asansol, Allahabad and Dhanbad feature on the other extreme-not

surprisingly, as development has bypassed all these cities in recent times.

Ranks
1 Mumbai
2 Chennai
3 Coimbatore
4 Ludhiana
5 Delhi

(NCR)

Environment & Life Style



This parameter might have the lowest billing in terms of weightage, but that

does not mean that it is any less crucial in determining the IT health of a

city. The factors considered were environmental factors like climate, political

stability, pollution level, crime rate, etc, while the lifestyle factors

included the availability of entertainment options like multiplexes, eating

outlets, etc. This was more a perception survey as data is hard to come for

these parameters. Again the obvious choice for this was Bangalore, irrespective

of the traffic chokes and complaints of infrastructure. Similar is the case for

Mumbai.

While

people cannot help complaining about the traffic issues and infrastructure

problems, these continue to be on the top thanks to a thriving non-work life.

Again, while the cost of living would be high for these cities, it is obvious

that employees would like to move from one metro to another rather than to a

smaller city like Meerut where the cost of living might be very low. And

companies with plans to expand into other cities too have to take cognizance of

this important fact.

Ranks
1 Bangalore
2 Mumbai
3 Hyderabad
4 Delhi

(NCR)
5 Pune

Rajneesh De

Methodology

The purpose of the study was to rate different cities on

various parameters so as to arrive at the "Top IT destinations" in the

country. First of all a list of 35 major cities was made that were to be covered

under this study. Extensive secondary research was done by IDC to gather data

for each of these cities on different parameters from various sources. IDC's

proprietary data was used in IT related parameters.

Four broad categories were identified for this purpose and

these were further broken into 16 sub-parameters. The parameters used were

Industrial Performance, ICT Infrastructure Availability and Usage, Availability

of Quality Manpower and Environment and Life style

Each of these sub parameters was then assigned weights

according to their importance on the final score. The data for each parameter

was then normalized across all the cities and corresponding weights were applied

to them. Summation of this weighted data across all the cities then gave the

final score for each city.

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