India has become famous as a destination for outsourcing, but since it is a rather large country, where exactly in the subcontinent should prospective service purchasers look for suppliers? According to Alsbridge, an outsourcing advisory firm, a number of Indian cities have the potential to become outsourcing hotspots for major worldwide corporations.

"When most people think of India, they think of just one or two big cities," said Ben Trowbridge, Alsbridge CEO. "The reality is that India is a big and complex country with many cities that would be large enough to support an NFL franchise if they were in the US. A lot of major urban areas offer outsourcing locations."

The 10 Indian cities that Alsbridge offers as outsourcing alternatives are: Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mangalore, Nagpur, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram and Visakhapatnam. In a report, Alsbridge claimed that while the operating margins of US outsourcing providers have hovered around 6% over the last decade, providers in India are able to achieve margins of up to 40%. As a result, India outsourcing firms provide services as much as 25% cheaper than US firms