`Tear` II cities: No frills, no thrills, moan BPO staff

When 26-year-old Nirup was asked by his company to get ready for a stint in Hubli-Dharwad, he decided to hunt for a new job.

"What can I do in Hubli after office hours or during weekends? If I remain in Bangalore, I can spend time visiting shopping malls, multiplexes and pubs," Nirup explained to Business Standard while insisting that the BPO he currently works for in Bangalore should not be named.

Nirup's is not an isolated case, there are several others of his ilk who are not keen on shifting to tier II and tier III cities for lack of a proper social infrastructure like shopping and entertainment facilities.

Though BPO companies have the first-mover advantage while acquiring land in these tier II and III cities, industry experts admit the biggest challenge is attracting skilled employees to these locations.

At present, the total direct employment provided by India's IT-BPO sector is 2 million, of which over 90 per cent is captured by the seven leading cities of Bangalore, Mumbai, NCR, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai and Kolkata. According to the recent Nasscom-A T Kearney study on `location road map for IT-BPO growth', the share of sectoral employment in the top seven locations will decline to around 60-75 per cent over the next decade and that will subsequently result in the rise of tier II and tier III cities'.

"But that cannot be achieved by only installing physical infrastructure like power lines and mass-transport system in tier II and tier III cities. Efforts should also be made to create an ecosystem that comprises social infrastructure with the trappings of metropolitan life," contended Saurine M Doshi, partner A T Kearney India. In fact, the Nasscom-A T Kearney assessment of 50 leading locations for IT-BPO sector had pointed out that a lack of recreational facilities was also a handicap for the tier-II and III cities.

For instance: while cities like Mangalore and Hubli-Dharwad were favoured by companies in terms of cost advantage, they fared badly in terms of social environment and location attractiveness. Though Hubli-Dharwad got an IT park a few years ago, it failed to make an impact because of the lack of social infrastructure. Youngsters who hail from that region prefer to enjoy modern lifestyle in Bangalore than lead a