Among the 50 leading cities on the IT-BPO road growth, Bangalore has been classified as a "leader position", Mangalore as a "challenger location" and Hubli-Dharwad as "aspirant locations" as per a Nasscom-AT Kearney Study released here today.

Presenting the findings at the Nasscom's BPO Strategy Summit 2008, Som Mittal, NASSCOM President, said that the findings are indicative of the potential that the industry sees in this region - beyond Bangalore and of the investments that companies can make here.

"Given the recently constituted government (in Karnataka), we are hopeful that a favourable policy environment will emerge and help the IT sector develop further", he said.

He said though Bangalore will continue to grow and deliver, what can make investment in tier two and three cities attractive was the cost of operations which were less than 15 to 20 per cent, in terms of real estate value and wages. He said cities like Mysore, Hubli, Dharwad needed support on these fronts to grow and develop into leading

IT hubs.

He said Nasscom is adopting a three-pronged approach to develop the industry. The short term was in terms of providing finishing schools, mid-term included developing faculties and long term was building capacity. He said that rebuilding education system and the PPP model to develop institutes like the IIT-B were those that would help in aiding the industry.

The BPO industry, he said, had moved from the realm of just being cost-efficient in India and was being perceived as being service-efficient and high on delivery and productivity.