‘Take me home, country roads’ by John Denver is one of my favourite numbers and I loved playing it on loop while driving to my picturesque hometown, Udupi, 400 km from the noise and bustle of Bengaluru. The nostalgia of growing up there eventually pushed me to set up an office in that town. However, when some of my colleagues started telling me they wanted to be in Bengaluru for their next career journey, I asked myself what had I done. Despite Bengaluru’s crumbling infrastructure and crawling traffic, the younger generation appeared keen to move to the megapolis.Workplace and workerBig cities around the world have continuously attracted the best talent from other cities and countries, thanks to attractive career opportunities. New York, San Francisco, Singapore, and London are sought-after cities to migrate for work. In India, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Gurugram, Pune, Chennai, and Mumbai are the six big cities when it comes to top white-collar jobs. In the last few years, however, other state capitals have tried to break the stranglehold of the ‘Big 6’ by enticing enterprises with a plethora of incentives. It’s a welcome trend, as urban planning in the Big 6 hasn’t kept pace with employment growth. But I am not sure whether free benefits are enough to attract MNCs, which look at several other factors too when deciding on a location. Talent density, Grade A real estate, and travel connectivity are the top three criteria for MNCs entering new cities. As for employees, the top preconditions for migrating to a new place are diverse career opportunities, and an easy commute to and from their home city. Most Indian states and tier 2 towns are still work in progress in these areas.Negative campaignsNine years ago, I was at a promotional event of a prominent State that wanted to become the next big IT hub. The first slide in the presentation by a bureaucrat was a photo of a Bengaluru traffic jam. On another occasion, I saw an industry acquaintance joking about Delhi pollution even as he promoted his State’s low AQI. Sometimes people trying to lure talent or companies away from cities like Bengaluru or Delhi forget that a smear campaign against those cities are not enough. If the challenger towns don’t have a compelling story of their own, they have lost even before they have begun.Emotional appealsEvery State or tier 2 city trying to attract investors is misled by one data point: their huge diaspora working in the six big cities. The popular belief is that these professionals will return if you appeal to their emotions. Hence, you see many catchy phrases designed to appeal to parochial sensibilities. But would you really migrate back to your hometown simply because you feel more emotionally connected to it? I doubt that feeling can outlast the realities of economics.I asked a CXO who recently set up shop in a tier 2 city and hired his first 50 employees how easy it was to hire in a smaller city. He said the narrative of moving back appealed to professionals in their 40s, but only when offered a significant hike. For returnees, the perks of homecoming are only second to the quality and perks of the job.The social lifeA 30-something ex-colleague returned to Bengaluru after a two-year work stint in her hometown. “I enjoyed the 10-minute commute, serene beaches, quiet life, and I had more personal time. But I also quickly realised that since there were limited competing enterprises in that town, salaries weren’t growing competitively. Also, I missed the diversity of restaurants, visiting breweries, late-night partying, rock concerts and live shows of Bengaluru,” she said. The young do want an active social life and unlimited career options even if the trade-off is negotiating a crowded city.Our ability to retain or attract Gen Z in the 22 states without megacities will be crucial to building the next six big cities of India.The GCC mirageStates attempting to attract new companies are going after global capability centres (GCCs). It’s a worthwhile idea, considering the huge number of GCCs launched in India over the last three years. Another 3,000 are expected in the next few years. But one must remember that the new GCCs are setting up in India owing to the success of their peers and competitors in the Big 6 Indian cities. The other cities are not even under discussion as they lack scalable talent, connectivity and sophisticated infrastructure. The focus of the challenger states should instead be to attract large Indian conglomerates. There are over 3,629 Indian companies with annual revenues exceeding ₹1,000 crore each. Wouldn’t it be easier for the 22 states without megacities to meet the CEOs of these desi companies versus getting an audience with Elon Musk to set up in their State/city?There are 49 Indian cities with over a million population each. China has 100-plus. The US has only a dozen. Can these 49 cities focus on developing their physical, social, and educational infrastructure? It will take a few years, but we need to remember it took a few decades to build cities like Hyderabad and Bengaluru.(Kamal Karanth is co-founder of specialist staffing firm Xpheno)Published on August 31, 2026