A recent study conducted by Nasscom and AT Kearney has identified 50 cities in India that would be the best bets for hosting the IT and BPO industries.

Titled 'Location Roadmap for IT-BPO Growth: Assessment of 50 leading cities', the study sets out a GAP analysis of the cities providing advantages and disadvantages of the 50 locations that it has done research on. It also says that the study would help create a roadmap on ensuring uniform development across Indian cities in the short-to-medium term.

Gurgaon has overtaken Bangalore as the top rated city for setting up a software-BPO network, with the study emphasizing on the availability of a talent pool, reasonable cost of living, good infrastructure and adequate support from local administration as the key factors behind this choice. The survey adds that Gurgaon has the advantage of proximity to other cities like Delhi, Noida, Faridabad and Ghaziabad.

So, what is it that made Bangalore concede the top slot to Gurgaon? The city, known as the Silicon Valley of India, has been let down by lacklustre growth in infrastructure over the past decade. Despite having a cosmopolitan talent pool and a great business environment, this southern city has lagged on facilities like power, transport and connectivity.

On the list are Chennai, which gained from Bangalore's lax infrastructure, and Hyderabad which is fast becoming the KPO capital of the country, thanks to the slew of companies that have flown in over the past few years.

Outside of southern India, Pune is considered as the fastest-growing city offering all that an IT-BPO company needs to kick- start its operations. With India's major IT companies already setting up shop there, the city has managed to lure the best of talent and resources with its easy-paced life and reasonable cost of living.

Close on the heels of Pune is Mumbai which is already hailed as the financial capital of India. Though the city is bursting at its seams in terms of infrastructure, the report believes that a good talent pool and a business-friendly atmosphere makes the city a good bet for IT-BPO investments.

Kolkata, Mohali and Chandigarh are the next cities on the list though the West Bengal capital may have lost some of its sheen due to the latest row over the Singur car plant of the Tata Group. As for Mohali and Chandigarh, the states of Haryana and Punjab have been proactively coming out with packages to lure IT industry into the region.

Other cities that have been listed out by the research include Jaipur, Mysore, Nagpur, Madurai, Kochi, Ahmedabad and Bhubaneswar in Orissa. Apart from these, the study mentions the following as cities with potential for IT-BPO business: Mangalore, Coimbatore, Indore, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirapalli, Vadodara, Visakhapatnam, Aurangabad, Bhopal, Goa, Gwalior, Hubli-Dharwad, Kanpur, Nashik, Pondicherry, Salem, Surat, Vijayawada, Allahabad, Dehradun, Durgapur, Gangtok, Guwahati, Ludhiana, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi, Shimla, Siliguri, Srinagar, and Varanasi.