India’s tech industry, now part of a $4.2 trillion economy, is undergoing a significant geographic rethink as value pools shift from traditional services to AI-native segments.
While a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report suggests a need to reinvent the talent pyramid, the practical roadmap is being defined by leaders navigating the trade-offs between metro hubs and emerging cities.
For fast-scaling organisations like Verloop, Tier-1 cities remain the essential magnetic core.
Ankit Sarawagi, Verloop’s CFO, observed a definitive post-pandemic return to the office, arguing that building a 100-person team in a smaller city is "just impossible" due to the lack of a concentrated talent pool. "Slow hiring means slow development, slow growth," Sarawagi explained.
The Verloop CFO told THE WEEK that tech hiring was easiest where the ecosystem—whether fintech in Mumbai or VCs in Bengaluru—was already established. He highlighted a significant financial hurdle: the hiring premium in Bengaluru can be 40 to 100 per cent higher than in other locations because that specific talent pool is so dense.
In contrast, QBurst provides a successful blueprint for the Tier-2 model, having operated in Kerala for 21 years.
Malini Moorthy, QBurst’s Chief People Officer, explained to THE WEEK how their strategy paid "strong dividends" in employee loyalty.
"We were not hiring for skill; we were hiring for the right attitude," Moorthy stated, adding that the company retains talent by offering youngsters early opportunities for "high-tech work".
Moorthy also highlighted the rise of Reverse Migration, where senior professionals leave metros like Mumbai or Bengaluru for their home states to balance high-level roles with family responsibilities, such as parent care.
However, she identified a specific need to "polish" Tier-2 talent, who often possess a high technology quotient but lack the presentation exposure found in metros. This could be fixed by training.
Hardware manufacturing also bridges this divide. Ravi Kunwar, CEO and VP at HMD India, APAC, and ANZ, noted that 100 per cent of their devices for the country are manufactured in India, with hubs in Greater Noida and Baddi acting as catalysts for urban upgradation.
Kunwar observed that industrial centres drew populations from Tier-3 and Tier-4 areas, allowing them to contribute directly to the growing economy. HMD India, which now makes Nokia and HMD-brand phones in the country, is a major player when it comes to digital inclusion, with voice-based AI to 2G (and possibly 4G) feature phones for 200 million "unconnected" Indians.
Ultimately, the transition from "the world’s back office" to an IP powerhouse depends on making Tier-2 success stories more visible.
QBurst’s Moorthy stressed that moving from a higher-tier city to a lower-tier hometown should become an aspiration rather than a compromise. If India can pair its execution excellence with this broader distribution of innovation, its next tech chapter will truly belong to every corner of the nation.
