American Express, HSBC To Leave City?

In a precursor of things to come for Hyderabad, while it's not official yet, it is strongly rumoured that American Express has decided to shift its back-office operations from Hyderabad, to Chennai.

The bank employs some 1,000 persons in its Hyderabad operation, and if the shifting happens, unless these people are willing to relocate to a place with a different language and culture, it's the end of the road for their careers at least temporarily, since for 1,000 persons to get hired, someone else needs to be expanding, and nobody is entertaining any such thoughts for the city right now.

Even HSBC, much bigger in Hyderabad operations than American Express, is said to have decided to move from the city, though nothing's official yet. Many other companies, especially MNCs, based in Hyderabad are said to be seriously contemplating moving to other cities, especially Chennai, which is more than eager to lay out the red carpet for them.

The ongoing Telangana agitation, sparked off by TRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao's fast 2 months back, is showing no signs of abating, and it is increasingly being felt that the government has shown little imagination or will yet to bring things back into order.

The result is that Brand Hyderabad, built over a decade by enterprising CMs and bureaucrats, is fizzling out fast. Rosaiah has made a reputation for himself as a CM who gets less headlines than the average JAC member, and has not helped industry's confidence much, with the result that hard work done over 10 years is quickly getting undone.

No company has any plans of expanding operations in Hyderabad which, once seen as Hi-Tech city, is now dubbed Hi-Alert city. Any business shutting its Hyderabad operations means career jeopardy and emotional turmoil, and much possible impact on personal relationships and family life, for hundreds if not thousands of employees.

In a small bit of good news for the state, cashing in on Hyderabad's woes is Visakhapatnam. The steel city is all set to turn into IT city now - coaching institutes are mushrooming, more students are learning software courses, and big names like Wipro and Satyam already located there is helping, it seems.