Gurgaon’s glory days as the country’s premier hub for IT-enabled services and BPO firms may well be waning, warns a new study on the fast-growing suburb of the NCR. A few months after Gurgaon — which accounts for about 40 per cent of the BPO and ITES market — was rated ahead of Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai, the CII-Hewitt study says Gurgaon is below-average when it comes to infrastructure and packaging itself.The study, which was released by newly-elected Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today, says the brand image of Haryana as an IT destination is slipping with capital heading to other states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. ‘‘This industry lacks appropriate branding efforts, investor meets, an IT savvy administration and a special IT/ ITES coordinating agency (like in AP),’’ the study goes on to say, adding that ‘‘Any pro-IT/ITES initiatives taken is not being promoted aggressively.’’As far as environment is concerned, the study lists out the lack of a nodal ITES government agency as a key issue. ‘‘New entrants in the ITES sector require pre-specified approvals, including some paper work in Chandigarh,’’ says the report. It adds that Gurgaon in isolation does not seem to be policy driven and current benefits are driven by access to NCR.The study lists lack of public transportation infrastructure between Gurgaon and Delhi, high frequency of power cuts, high power tariffs in industrial and residential areas and expensive housing facilities as the key issues as far as IT infrastructure is concerned.Recommending improvement in public transportation system to lower costs of operations for IT/ITES players, the study also calls for reforms in the power sector to boost the power situation. Deterioration in law and order situation has also been hinted here.Discussing talent as a driver, the study says that the while cost of manpower is on the higher side, attrition rates are also relatively high and local talent pool from Haryana is not tapped sufficiently.Stating that Gurgaon is Haryana’s sole representative on India’s industrial map, the study says key issues are that it does not have a large-scale plug & play technology park facility and that ‘‘there should be a conscious effort to develop an alternate hub to Gurgaon.’’ To address marketing issues, the study moots the need for ‘‘proactive state government branding exercises’’ for repositioning Haryana as a preferred IT/ ITES destination. ‘‘All initiatives undertaken towards progress of the state must be highlighted. For instance, the construction of the Mehrauli-Gurgaon Bypass must be publicized,’’ states the study.
