Cities in Spotlight
What does this mean for you — the customer of services who has sent work to India ? Should you really care where your work is being done as long as the service levels are being met? Not really. But you should know about issues of talent, infrastructure and cost and talent — it is your work that stands to gain or suffer because of these reasons. Moreover, you will be spending time at these places to drive delivery so it may be a good idea to know what you can do once the sun goes down (not much, we're afraid).

Global Services examines some emerging Indian cities that hold promise as IT and BPO hotspots. (Top Emerging Cities)

Jaipur Better known for its royalty, palaces, forts, camels, elephants, forts, palaces, henna and bright colors, Jaipur is an extremely popular tourist destination. This city in Northwest India has received attention in terms of roads, hotels, telecom and power.

The Delhi-Jaipur expressway will get you to the city from Delhi in about three hours. But once you get there, navigation amongst the rickshaws, bicycles, scooters, cars and pedestrians will be … charming. The city has traditionally had hotels catering to foreign tourists — old palaces and forts converted into luxury hotels. Now, it has several business hotels as well. But, hotel rates in the city are climbing steadily (in the range of $150 a night at a business hotel) and it is getting increasingly difficult to find rooms.

Yet, there is little dearth of educated people, and attrition is low. Taking advantage of this, companies have begun to set up operations in the city. One of the most recent centers to have opened in Jaipur is that of Infosys' BPO arm. Opened in December 2006, the center has 450 people and services three customers. The company plans to move its operations in a special economic zone in the outskirts of the city and scale up to 5,000–7,000 people.