Many large foreign companies have chosen Chennai over other locations for their engineering staff. Visteon, Caterpillar, Nissan-Renault, Vestas, Kone, FLSmidth, Nokia, Ericsson, Flextronics, Alcatel, Tessolve, Sanmina-SCI corporation have R&D or product development centers in and around Chennai.
For example Visteon India MD, A Viswanathan said that the Visteon technical and services centre was set up in 1998 with just 10 people. It has grown into a 110,000 sq ft center with 500 engineers plus 250 employees. They are focused on developing embedded software and hardware engineering.
What it means
Chennai is a serious contender for many Western companies seeking to tap technical talent in India. Take a close look at Chennai if you are willing to consider locations beyond Bangalore.
The slower pace compared to Mumbai and Delhi, the somewhat lower costs and a friendly provincial government, make up for the humidity and heat. It’s airport is undergoing serious upgrades. A huge nuclear power plant in Kudankulam is going to start pumping gigawatts into Chennai’s power starved companies soon.
Chennai is not right for everyone and we often recommend other cities including Hyderabad, Pune, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Mysore for some of my clients. For some Banglaore, Delhi or Mumbai are still the best choice. And this is not the complete list.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
