Five Indian cities feature among the top 10 emerging destinations worldwide for outsourcing of IT and business processes, according to a study by investment advisory firm Tholons and Global Service Magazine. These include Chennai (ranked number 1), Hyderabad (2), Pune (3), Kolkata (5) and Chandigarh (9). The study finds that Asia and East Europe have emerged as the favoured destinations for such outsourcing. Nineteen Asian and twelve East and Central European nations dominate the list of the top 50 emerging outsourcing cities globally. The three hot cities for outsourcing from China are Shanghai at No. 8, Beijing at No. 10 and Shenzhen at No. 13.

The study lists Bangalore, New Delhi NCR, Manila NCR, Mumbai and Dublin as the top five cities that have established themselves as prime outsourcing cities by servicing the global corporate world for over a decade. According to Avinash Vashistha, chairman of Tholons, “With the demand-supply gap widening, newer tier II cities will play a critical role in re-engineered globalisation models. Destinations will need to provide greater level of cost effectiveness and operational efficiency.” The study says outsourcers consider process maturity, availability of relevant skills and costs in individual city as top reasons before deciding on the location for IT and BPO services.