4 CHENNAI
City City Bang Bang!
Why does Chennai get more bad press than it
deserves?
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Not yet there: Though the city has everything
going for it |
It can lay legitimate claim to being
the Detroit of India (if there is still merit in being likened
to that American city). It produces more engineers a year than
most other cities in the country. It has been, for at least the
past 12 months, the most happening it services hub in the country.
It isn't a bad place to live, and boasts some of the best educational
institutions in the country. And, despite taking a knock or two
from 2004's tsunami and last year's floods, it remains one of
the safest places to do business in India. So, why does Chennai
not figure at #1 or #2, even #3 on this magazine's listing of
the best cities for business? Actually, no one knows (and just
to add to the preamble, Chennai also boasts the first special
economic zone that is a result of a public-private partnership,
Mahindra City; and in March 2006, Nokia inaugurated its first
manufacturing facility in India, at Sri Perambudur on the outskirts
of the city). "Chennai is good for manufacturing," says
Suresh Krishna, Chairman and Managing Director, Sundram Fasteners,
adding a caveat about the only spoiler being the city's distance
from markets. Jukka Lehtela, the man in charge of Nokia's Indian
manufacturing operations, speaks fondly of a government (it has
since been voted out of power) that "acted faster than they
spoke". And A. Gururaj, General Manager and Director (India),
Flextronics, adds that it was the "deep reserve of technical
talent in this part of India" that encouraged the company
to locate in Chennai.
-Nitya Varadarajan
CHENNAI FACT FILE |
FOUNDED: 1639 A.D.
AREA: 1,180 sq. km (Refers to Chennai metropolis and
not Chennai Corporation)
POPULATION: 6.7 million
ROAD LENGTH: 2036.41 km
INDUSTRIAL LOAD SHEDDING: Nil*
RESIDENTIAL LOAD SHEDDING: Nil*
PIPED WATER: 12 hours every day
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE RATES: Rs 10,000-12,000/sq.
ft
RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE RATES: Rs 3,000/sq. ft (average)
TELEDENSITY: 570 per 1,000 people
AVERAGE PER CAPITA WHITE COLLAR WAGES:
JUNIOR MANAGER: Rs 4-7 lakh per annum
MIDDLE MANAGER: Rs 8-15 lakh per annum
SENIOR MANAGER: Rs 20 lakh-plus per annum
*Does not include unscheduled power cuts
Sources: GoI, martket estimates |
5
HYDERABAD
Cyberabad Redux
Andhra Pradesh's capital is beginning to get
it right.
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Work-in-progress: Hyderabad has more
than enough room for growth |
Andhra Pradesh's chief Minister
Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy is out to prove that it is possible for
Cyberabad (as the city was popularly referred to during the previous
regime led by the Telugu Desam's Nara Chandrababu Naidu) to co-exist
with the larger state of Andhra Pradesh. Thus, the Chief Minister
is busy announcing sops for farmers one minute, signing memoranda
of understanding with investors wishing to put down a chip FAB
another (for the record, the latter, the famed Fab City project,
will be up by 2009 and involve a total investment of $3 billion
or Rs 14,100 crore). "In the next three years, this will
be the #1 state in the country," says Reddy. "The availability
of good talent, especially technical, and the relatively low cost
of living are all making Hyderabad an attractive destination for
business," adds Satish Reddy, Chief Operating Officer, Dr
Reddy's Labs. Signs of urban renewal abound in the city: new and
work-in-progress flyovers, a new international airport, a proposed
ring road that will circumscribe Hyderabad, even a Metro rail
project. There's still the complaint about inadequate nightlife;
then, that should follow.
-E. Kumar Sharma
HYDERABAD FACT FILE |
FOUNDED: 1591 A.D.
AREA: 2,300 sq. km (Hyderabad Metropolitan Area)
POPULATION: 7.5 million
ROAD LENGTH: 1,575 km
INDUSTRIAL LOAD SHEDDING: Nil*
RESIDENTIAL LOAD SHEDDING: Nil*
PIPED WATER: Two hours every alternate day
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE RATES: Rs 3,800-4,500/sq. ft
RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE RATES: Rs 2,800-4,000/sq. ft
TELEDENSITY: 350-400 per 1,000 people
AVERAGE PER CAPITA WHITE COLLAR WAGES:
JUNIOR MANAGER: Rs 1-3 lakh per annum
MIDDLE MANAGER: Rs 2-15 lakh per annum
SENIOR MANAGER: Rs 15 lakh-plus per annum
*Does not include unscheduled power cuts
Sources: GoI, market estimates |
6
KOLKATA
Comeback Capital
Red citadel (re)discovers joys of business.
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Look East: With the left doing a hard
sell |
Once, it was one of India's most
important centres of commerce, home to some of the country's best-known
business families, and the headquarters of several boxwallah companies.
Then, things changed; the communists (now into their 30th uninterrupted
year of rule) underestimated the importance of commerce, infrastructure
crumbled, and businesses, businessmen, even bright young people
in search of better prospects, fled Kolkata in numbers. Things
seem to have come full circle now, though, with current Chief
Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee singing a different, and more
business-friendly, tune (to the extent that he has even used terms
like contract farming, once reckoned to be a four-letter word
in the lexicon of the communists). The Tata Group, both Ambani
brothers, and a clutch of other businesses and businessmen, have
announced plans to invest in the city (some Rs 6,000 crore thus
far in 2006-07) and the state of West Bengal. "With surplus
power, good connectivity, reasonably low real estate prices, increasing
purchasing power and a low level of communal disharmony, Kolkata
is set to be one of the most investment-friendly destinations
in the country," says Sanjoy Budhia, Managing Director, Patton
Industries. The city has already emerged a sort of hub for it
services and BPO industries in the East (and India's National
Association of Software and Service Companies or nasscom says
it has reason to believe that attrition rates here are far lower
than elsewhere in the country).
-Ritwik Mukherjee
KOLKATA FACT FILE |
FOUNDED: 1690 A.D.
AREA: 185 sq. km
POPULATION: 14.7 million
ROAD LENGTH: 1,500 km
INDUSTRIAL LOAD SHEDDING: Nil*
RESIDENTIAL LOAD SHEDDING: Nil*
PIPED WATER: 12 hours every day
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE RATES: Rs 10,000/sq. ft (average)
RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE RATES: Rs 1,600/sq. ft (average)
TELEDENSITY: 95 per 1,000 people
AVERAGE PER CAPITA WHITE COLLAR WAGES:
JUNIOR MANAGER: Rs 4 lakh per annum
MIDDLE MANAGER: Rs 15 lakh per annum
SENIOR MANAGER: Rs 38 lakh per annum
*Does not include unscheduled power cuts
Sources: GoI, market estimates |
7
PUNE
The 'It' Factor
It takes something beyond infrastructure to
make a city, and this one has that.
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Traffic notwithstanding: Pune is a city
on the move |
Just as Amit Kalyani, executive
Director, Bharat Forge, had warned (and wished for), this writer
was stuck at a railway crossing outside the company's factory
(and several other factories) for over 30 minutes. Pune's traffic
is probably the worst in all India, the city is plagued by endemic
power cuts (eight to 12 hours long, and several big factories
do not draw power from the grid during peak hours to make life
easier for the residents of the city) and Tarun Malaviya, Founder-CEO
of e-mail software hotshop Mithi would, for once, like the city
administration to make up its mind. "One day they want to
be 'Detroit of the East', and the next day the 'Oxford of the
East'," he laughs. "It would make things easier if they
could make up their minds." "We are lucky that Pune
is connected by the best road in the country to the best port
in the country," says Kalyani, "but it still takes my
trucks three hours to travel the 10-odd km to the expressway."
(He adds that Bharat Forge's new plant will not be in Pune). So,
what does Pune have going for it? Anand Deshpande, CEO, Persistent
Systems, maintains that it is "the most entrepreneurial city
in India". "Bangalore and Hyderabad are about the big
names," he adds. "Pune supports companies like ours
(around 2,600 people), even much smaller than us." "Pune
has a lot of young people wanting to work in companies like ours,"
says Mithi's Malaviya (total workforce: 32). And Kalyani points
out that despite all its problems, Bharat Forge's Pune plant is
"the best and most efficient plant" across all the company's
factories. "There is no telling what this city can do if
it got the right infrastructure."
-Kushan Mitra
PUNE FACT FILE |
FOUNDED: Circa 750 A.D.
AREA: 237 sq. km (Pune Municipal Corporation)
POPULATION: 2.53 million
ROAD LENGTH: 1,252 km
INDUSTRIAL LOAD SHEDDING: Nil*
RESIDENTIAL LOAD SHEDDING: Nil*
PIPED WATER: Four hours every day
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE RATES: Rs 10,000-12,500/sq.
ft
RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE RATES: Rs 3,500-4,000/sq. ft
TELEDENSITY: 350 per 1,000 people^
AVERAGE PER CAPITA WHITE COLLAR WAGES:
JUNIOR MANAGER: Rs 5 lakh per annum
MIDDLE MANAGER: Rs 12 lakh per annum
SENIOR MANAGER: Rs 24 lakh per annum
*Does not include unscheduled power cuts |
8
AHMEDABAD
The Day-after City
Gujarat's capital may be at #8 in this listing,
but it suffers serious image problems.
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But for the riots: The City could be
#2 |
In recent times, Gujarat has been
through an earthquake, communal riots and floods. There are also
allegations in several quarters that the state has sponsored pogroms
targeted at a particular community. The prime casualty of all
these has been Ahmedabad's standing, notwithstanding the relatively
high rank it has achieved here, as a centre of business. Without
the riots, Ahmedabad, given that its infrastructure is arguably
better than that of several southern cities that are riding the
it-wave, and its real estate less expensive than that in most
other cities of its size, could well have been among the best
cities for business in the country (not #1, perhaps, but a definite
contender for #2 although this would have also required the city,
which missed the it wave, to do some serious catching up). Of
signs of urban renewal, there are aplenty in Ahmedabad: wider
roads, new malls, a new commercial district replete with a 25-storey
hotel-cum-convention-centre (India's largest); and a Rs 1,000-crore
riverfront project along the banks of the Sabarmati. The city,
always renowned for its institutes of higher learning (IIM, NID,
the state universities, and institutes run by the Nirma and Reliance
groups) is a great place to do business, insists Vishnu Varshney,
Managing Director, Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd (GVFL). His rationale?
"Cheap real estate and good infrastructure." Even on
the infrastructure front, however, all doesn't seem too well.
Consumers in Ahmedabad pay as much as Rs 7.50 for a unit of power
(possibly the highest in India, and the only upside is that the
city almost never suffers a power outage).
-Kushan Mitra
AHMEDABAD FACT FILE |
FOUNDED: 1411A.D.
AREA: 190.84 sq. km (Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation)
POPULATION: 4.8 million
ROAD LENGTH: 1.057 km
INDUSTRIAL LOAD SHEDDING: Nil*
RESIDENTIAL LOAD SHEDDING: Nil*
PIPED WATER: 24x7
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE RATES: Rs 2,500/sq. ft
RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE RATES: Rs 2,000-2,500/sq. ft
TELEDENSITY: 450 per 1,000 people^
AVERAGE PER CAPITA WHITE COLLAR WAGES:
JUNIOR MANAGER: Rs 3 lakh per annum
MIDDLE MANAGER: Rs 9 lakh per annum
SENIOR MANAGER: Rs 22 lakh per annum
*Does not include unscheduled power cuts |
9
MYSORE
Bangalore Shadow
Proximity can well make a best city for business.
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Poor sibling: Mysore is trying hard
to catch us |
Bangalore is, well, Bangalore. But
140 km to the south of the city is an older, albeit smaller and
less-famous sibling that's hoping that some of Bangalore's brand
equity rubs off on it (and that it can actually benefit from some
of Bangalore's ills). This is Mysore, and as Sid Mookerji, CEO,
Software Paradigms, one of the first software firms to set up
base in the city claims, "It is better planned in terms of
infrastructure and boasts a better quality of life than some large
cities." Today, there are some 40 software companies registered
with the local STPI (Software Technology Parks of India), and
a dozen more are reported to be hunting space in the city (exports
have grown from less than Rs 1 crore in the early 1990s to Rs
392 crore in 2005-06). "Mysore is at least 25-30 per cent
cheaper than Bangalore across parameters," says R. Guru,
Chairman, nr Group, and a former president of the local chamber
of commerce. And, with a 250-acre textile park (at Kadkola, on
the city's periphery), Mysore is also hoping to feed off Bangalore's
status as India's software capital. Whether the infrastructure
can cope with all that success is something that only a bit of
the commodity (success) can tell.
-Rahul Sachitanand
MYSORE FACT FILE |
FOUNDED: 1399 A.D.
AREA: 128.42 sq. km (Mysore City Corporation)
POPULATION: 0.78 million
ROAD LENGTH: 1,181.78 km
INDUSTRIAL LOAD SHEDDING: One hour every day
RESIDENTIAL LOAD SHEDDING: One hour every day
PIPED WATER: Six hours every day
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE RATES: Rs 1,500/sq. ft (average)
RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE RATES: Rs 1,000/sq. ft (average)
TELEDENSITY: 10 per 1,000 people
AVERAGE PER CAPITA WHITE COLLAR WAGES:
JUNIOR MANAGER: Rs 4-5 lakh per annum
MIDDLE MANAGER: Rs 10-12 lakh per annum
SENIOR MANAGER: Rs 25 lakh per annum
Sources: GoI, market estimates |
10
VIZAG
Day-time Destination
Andhra Pradesh's second most important city
still has ways to go.
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For a city that is in the top 10
in this magazine's listing of the best cities for business, Vizag
has a strange shortcoming: planes cannot land in its airport after
3 p.m. (the ostensible reason is that this could pose a security
threat to the navy's eastern fleet that is based in the city).
Despite that minor blip in connectivity, however, Vizag, its loyalists
(and there are plenty of them) swear, has enough going for it.
"There is harmony on the industrial relations front here,"
gushes Y. Siva Sagar Rao, Chairman and Managing Director, Rashtriya
Ispat Nigam Ltd (also Vizag Steel). Then, there's the fact that
Vizag has enough engineering colleges of its own, and serves as
a catchment area for engineers from Orissa. "The main attraction
(for us) is the talent pool," says T. Hari, Director and
Senior Vice President (HR), Satyam Computer Services, which is
looking to grow its operations in the city. And the state government
is pushing the city as an alternative hub for the pharmaceuticals
industry (capital Hyderabad is already one), something that has
encouraged firms like Dr Reddy's Laboratories to make substantial
investments in it. All that should count.
-E. Kumar Sharma
VIZAG FACT FILE |
FOUNDED: 1858 A.D. (Visakhapatnam Municipality)
AREA: 450 sq. km (Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation
area)
POPULATION: 1.34 million
ROAD LENGTH: 1,007 km
INDUSTRIAL LOAD SHEDDING: Nil*
RESIDENTIAL LOAD SHEDDING: Nil*
PIPED WATER: About one hour ever day
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE RATES: Rs 2,500-3,000/sq. ft
RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE RATES: Rs 1,500-1,800/sq. ft
TELEDENSITY: 240 per 1,000 people
AVERAGE PER CAPITA WHITE COLLAR WAGES:
JUNIOR MANAGER: Rs 1-3 lakh per annum
MIDDLE MANAGER: Rs 2-15 lakh per annum
SENIOR MANAGER: Rs 15 lakh per annum
*Does not include unscheduled power cuts
Sources: GoI, market estimates |
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