Battle for tech talent now shifts to hinterlands on reverse migration
smaller cities, which hold the default advantage of lower operational costs and low attrition rates.
Two recent reports – the Economic Survey and Infosys ESG – suggest that tech firms and global capability centres (GCCs) of multinationals are increasingly expanding their operations beyond metros, thanks to a newer base of talent available after their relocation during Covid.
What is driving them to smaller cities is high availability of talent that migrated during pandemic and didn’t return to their work locations post pandemic plus cost benefit across operations, said Munira Loliwala, vice president for strategy and growth at TeamLease Digital.
“Hiring is 60-70% more cost effective, infrastructure more viable and scalable. These locations offer cost arbitrage, standardisation, lower attrition rates, better government policies and subsidies,” she said.
As per TeamLease data, emerging tech hubs such as Chandigarh, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Indore, Bhubaneswar, Vizag, Coimbatore and Kochi have a combined installed tech talent of 490,000-540,000. That is around 10% of the total technology talent pool of about 5.5 million available in the country.
“GCCs are increasingly evaluating tier-II towns to expand their operations, influenced by the reverse migration seen during the pandemic and the cost arbitrage offered by such relatively under-penetrated markets,” the Economic Survey of 2024 released on July 22 said.
“As per a CBRE research report, during the first half of 2023, about 22% of GCC centres were set up in tier-II
