Deloitte, PwC, IBM set up offices in India’s smaller cities

The world’s major accounting firms are stepping up investments in new Indian facilities away from bigger cities as global demand for cheaper back office operations grows and smaller towns move up the economic value chain.

For decades, large multinational corporations have rushed to India’s biggest metropolises, chiefly Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, to set up massive operational centres that employ millions, lured by vast, low-cost talent pools, particularly in IT.

Business service exports have become a critical part of India’s economy but the sector has been hit by a slowdown in global demand for software and challenges in big urban centres such as rising costs, high attrition and slow progress in getting workers to return to the office after the pandemic.