The economy of Thiruvananthapuram city was earlier based on the tertiary sector with about 60% of the workforce being employed as government servants. Large-scale industrial establishments are low compared to other south Indian state capitals like Bangalore and Chennai. Currently the economy is growing with the contributions from more professionals in the fields of IT, and Medical/Bio-Technology.
Thiruvananthapuram was listed as one of the top 10 cites in India on Vibrancy Index and Consumption Index by a study conducted by global financial services firm Morgan Stanley. The opening of many private television channels in the state made Thiruvananthapuram the home of several studios and related industries. India's first animation park Kinfra Film and Video Park is situated here.
The city contributes 80% of software exports from the state, and was selected as the fourth hottest IT destination in India. Since the establishment of Technopark in 1995, Thiruvananthapuram has steadily grown into a competitive IT centre. The city was rated as the best 2nd tier metro with IT/ITES infrastructure, and second in terms of availability of human talent. Technopark houses global majors like Oracle Corporation, Infosys, ITC Infotech, TCS, HCL, Visual Graphics Computing Services, Ernst & Young Global Shared Services Center, Allianz Cornhill, RR Donnelley, UST Global, Tata Elxsi, IBS Software Services, NeST Software, SunTec Business Solutions etc. The park has around 250 companies employing over 35,000 professionals. This is the first CMMI Level 4 assessed Technology Park which spreads over 330 acres, and about 4,000,000 sq ft (370,000 m). of built-up space As Phase IV expansion, Technopark is developing 450 acres of land in Pallippuram, 5 km north from the main campus as Technocity.
Tourism has also contributed heavily to the economy of Thiruvananthapuram. Foreign tourists generally use Thiruvananthapuram as a hub to explore the highly promoted tourism
