With a multi-layered past, today’s Coimbatore, the Manchester of South India, has progressed by leaps and bounds and ranks fourth amongst Indian cities in terms of investment climate according to a study by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Recognised as the second largest software producer in Tamil Nadu, next only to Chennai, Coimbatore boasts of two special economic zones (SEZ) – the Coimbatore Hi-Tech Infrastructure (CHIL) SEZ, the Coimbatore TIDEL park – and has five more SEZs in the pipeline. The IT and BPO industries too have flourished in the city and it is now ranked at 17 among the global outsourcing cities. Coimbatore is also the largest non-metro city for e-commerce in South India.
Apart from its position as an attractive city for investment in South India, Coimbatore is also growing as a residential city, and is attracting professionals from around the country. This is especially true of the IT, ITeS and BPO professionals, who find significant career opportunity in Coimbatore, and also find that the facilities that the city provides – such as education, healthcare, lifestyle options – and its proximity to good leisure and nature options, is making the city a viable living option. Good air, rail and road connectivity to major cities nearby, including Chennai, Bangalore, and Kochi, and also some international destinations.
Coimbatore’s traditional focus on academics has given rise to a large number of institutions, universities and research centres in and around the city, attracting students from other parts of Tamil Nadu, from Kerala and Karnataka, as well as from other parts of the country.
A very large young population – of students and young professionals – allows Coimbatore to continue to defend its position as the ‘Motor Sports Capital of India’. This includes Formula 3 and Go-Karting in the city, and many prominent teams in the Indian rallying circuit call Coimbatore home.
While industrialization has led the city on the path to growth, the growing population with limited means has added to its woes. Like many cities of its size and density, Coimbatore is subject to power outages, traffic congestion, and insufficient drainage facilities.
The city, already attractive to large IT players for its good investment climate, access to talent and facilities, and tech-savvy population, is also proving to be a canvas for the various societal solutions that these companies design and create. Solutions for traffic management and crime prevention can be in a unified format, through surveillance cameras at the street level, and analytics can be run on the data generated to bring usable findings to law enforcement.
Smarter solutions for power grid management, a keener focus on green buildings and eco-friendly equipment, and even intelligent sewage management systems – none of these are impossible today, and the city authorities can even benefit from the experiences and learnings of large IT companies during installations in similar other cities around the world.
This is contributed by Girish Vasudevan, Geo Expansion Leader, IBM India / South Asia
