Hyderabad gets its mojo back; Google, Amazon, IKEA, Boeing and Uber queue up

HYDERABAD: When Facebook 'liked' the City of Pearls as its address in Asia at the height of the Telangana agitation in March 2010 - at a time when not many were willing to bet on Hyderabad - many eyebrows had shot up.

As violent bandhs rocked the city and power supply became erratic, chatter about Brand Hyderabad -- once seen as a serious contender to India's Silicon Valley (Bengaluru) -- losing its mojo grew louder. Many companies quietly started shifting key projects to other emerging destinations like Chennai and Pune. In the bargain, the city's real estate sector too suffered, a blow from which it is yet to recover.

Today, a year and half later, Brand Hyderabad is back to stealing a march over other hot investment destinations with Google, Amazon, IKEA, Boeing and Uber queuing up.
Obviously, much like the biryani and Haleem that it's famous for, Hyderabad has not lost its taste with the hi-tech industry. Former Nasscom president Som Mittal says, "Hyderabad always had strong fundamentals because of a world-class educational infrastructure. The disruption caused by the Telangana agitation led to uncertainty, which does not augur well for the IT sector that runs 24x7 operations. With the new state, there is predictability and certainty - which is good for Hyderabad."

For Nasscom chairman BVR Mohan Reddy, the city's affordable infrastructure has always been its biggest draw. "Comparison of convenience versus costs puts Hyderabad far ahead of any other city in India. Even during the peak of summer, power availability is not under stress," Reddy explains.

Recently, Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry, who chose the city for TCS' R&D centre, said, "Hyderabad is a major technology hub and is growing further in importance when it comes to technology talent."

"Telangana has been home to our IT operations for a while now. In the last year, the state government's support and the ease of doing business has encouraged us to make further significant investments," says a spokesperson of Amazon India, which set up its largest Indian fulfilment centre (FC) here and is eyeing another one.

According to IKEA India country communications and sustainability head Patrik Antoni, the Swedish retail major "strongly believes that Hyderabad offers a business-friendly environment with a proactive and progressive government along with a unique socio-cultural diversity" which is "an enabler for its goal to recruit 50% women managers and co-workers".

Uber Hyderabad GM Siddharth Shanker points out that within the three months of its launch, Hyderabad has been its choice to house its largest facility outside the US. "Hyderabad has global technology companies such as Google and Facebook, which is also one of the reasons that prompted us to set up base here," Shanker explains.

Even as these biggies settle in, PM Narendra Modi's clarion call to 'Make in India', is set to trigger a new wave of manufacturing investments, a space hitherto dominated by the pharma sector. While handset makers like Micromax and Celkon have already dialed Hyderabad, global players like Xiaomi and Samsung are exploring options to `Make in Hyderabad'.

Driving away the blues

· Google to build its largest campus outside the US in Hyderabad at an investment of Rs 1,000 crore

· Ikea's first India store to come up in the city at an investment of Rs 500 crore

· Uber will invest upwards of $50 million(over Rs 300 crore) in Hyderabad over the next five years to establish a state-of-the-art facility

· Amazon recently inaugurated its fulfilment centre spread over 2.8 lakh sq ft on the outskirts of the city

· Micromax and Celkon have committed total investments of around Rs 500 crore to set up their handset manufacturing units