Which City in India?

[bengal_tiger]

If you are planning to start your own company or a branch of your
US company in India (in the high-tech area), which city would you
look at, if personal/family factors are not considered. I have heard
the following:
1) Bangalore is overheated, the cost of doing business is very high.
Hyderabad and Delhi/Noida are close seconds.
2) Chennai, Pune and Kolkata are on the roadmap of many companies now.
3) Notice I left out Mumbai, because it is prohibitively expensive. Is
that a fair assumption?

I am particularly looking for information on:

1) Infrastructure: Relatively cheap office space, Uninterrupted power
(Grid or backup based), Reliable high bandwidth connections.

2) Personnel: Good pool of local talent, Large number of local
universities/colleges providing technical education, Reasonably
low turnover rates (I hear in some cities, a revolving door culture
exists and companies are having severe retention problems).

3) Government: How is the security situation? A very simple question
would be, if someone breaks into your office, how hard is it do
get the guys in Khakhi to file a police report? Alternatively, do the
guys in Khakhi/Local goons come asking for "maintennance"?

4) Finally, if you had no personal attachments to a city, and wanted
to start an IT-related business in India, where would you head today?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

[VS007]

If you are planning to start your own company or a branch of your
US company in India (in the high-tech area), which city would you
[/quote]

I would pick Coimbatore, though I have lived in that city only for a year. It enjoys a salubrious climate and mainly the local people and very enterprising and civic sense is very high. Instead of relying upon the Govt, the citizens have come together for betterment of the city in the area of water, cleanliness, green cover etc and I mean people from all walks of life including the rich businessmen have taken part physically in such activities.
One such org is siruthuli: http://www.siruthuli.org

[adityanm]

I would pick Lucknow which has many institutions of research and education and is not overheated yet.
It is connected by rail and air to all the leading towns.

[sftrade]

Try Nagpur, You can hire local nagpurkars who choose to remain in the city instead of moving to blore, pune and the US. Infrastructure is good and MIDC is encouraging people to move here. Reminds me of pune in the early 90's.

[Hindustani]

I would pick Vizag. Its the second largest city in AP and home to Andhra University and lot of other technical institutions. The cost of living is not high and the quality of life is good. There are not many software companies around and that leaves a big pool of engineering minds to pick from. I heard that Satyam opened their center recently and that Infosys is already building a center. Right time to get in. My 2 cents...

[Suri]

Good mix of 2nd/3rd tier cities here...

Here is my suggestion.

http://technopark.org/

The oldest and lowest cost STP in India.

[ksheer3]

OP,

I too would have recommended Coimbatore. However you can do your own resch. on your Qs if you have the time. You might come up with a different answer. Here are some leads.

· Merit Trac??Engg grad talent pool in India ? (2005)

Compares engg talent on several parameters for several states --MH,AP,TN, KA,etc. You?d be surprised at their conclusions.

· DB research -- Outsourcing to India (google: db research, India) Deutsche Bank has several resch reports on India, Indian real estate and IT/ITES scenario. (2005)

· McKinsey has a similar report that came out this year. (2007)

· Chesterton, Meghraj grp resch repts.

http://chestertonmeghraj.com/tmcreport.htm

all special reptorts by TCM group.

The following is a detailed analysis of the IT/ITES hubs in India (2005). Tailored for companies planning to outsource to India.

http://chestertonmeghraj.com/downloads/IT-ITES%20hubs%20in%20India_a%20Snapshot.pdf

· http://www.jllm.co.in/en-GB/research/

This RE company gives detailed analysis of commercial (and residential) RE in major Indian cities. Here are two ? B?luru and Chennai. (2006)
http://www.joneslanglasalle.co.in/en-GB/research/researchabstract?artid=2484
J&L report 2Q2006 cities blore
http://www.joneslanglasalle.co.in/en-GB/research/researchabstract?artid=2486
J&L Chennai 2q2006

[obiwankanobi]

Just another suggestion : Chandigarh (no logic except that it was one of the best cities to live).

Stay away from Kerala, too much communism there. Too many issues as well.

OB1.

[nand]

I wonder how kolkota stacks up now. I grew up there and to me it was a great place, never mind all the negative images. Certainly places like salt lake are happening. I lived around ballygunge circular road and it was great to live there. Awesome clubs, great sports facilities (maidan, south club etc.), lots of event crazy football rivalry (east bengal-mohun bagan etc.), eden gardens etc. and great street food.

The people are very friendly, and if you are a non-bengali who can speak bengali, the bongs will smother you with affection. bottom-line - I would consider Cal as an alternative.

[punjabi]

I think you should pick Kalkota. Salt lake has many software companies. As you know Bengalis are brainy people and local software talent is one of the best. Not to forget that attrition rates are one of the lowest since most of the locals never want to leave Kolkata. Also It is one of the chepest metros.