Destination South India

The Week says that lot of professionals are migrating to the South because of the booming economy

Maharashtra, Gujarat and the National Capital Region were the country's traditional industrial base for decades. The scene is changing. "Opportunities drove me southward," said Hemant Kumar Bhardwaj, vice-president (marketing) of the Chennai-based Polaris, an IT services firm. "The southern states are on a roll. They are creating immense job opportunities that are exciting and challenging."

It's not just the technology sector that is powering the south surge. Traditional sectors like automobile manufacturing, pharma and textiles are also contributing. Chennai, dubbed the Detroit of India, has been attracting huge investments from Hyundai, Mitsubishi and Ford. The world's number two automobile firm, Toyota, and the Swedish group Volvo have made Bangalore their manufacturing base.

Medical tourism is booming in the south. In Chennai, Apollo Hospitals has refurbished its rooms to match accommodation offered by five-star hotels. The hospital offers surgical procedures like hip and knee replacements, spine and cosmetic surgery at almost one-fourth of what US hospitals charge. According to global consulting firm McKinsey, medical tourism will become a $2 billion business in India by 2012.