Gurgaon

Gurgaon is a city in the relatively affluent northern Indian state of Haryana, and has a population of about 200,000. It is also a part of the National Capital Region of Delhi. It is located in Gurgaon District.

The origins of the city’s name are steeped in Hindu mythology. Legend has it that Gurgaon is the ancestral village of Guru Dronacharya, the teacher of the Pandavas and Kauravas in the Indian epic Mahabharata. Gurgaon comes from Guru (from Guru Dronacharya) and Gaon (meaning village). The village was gifted by the Pandavas and Kauravas to their Guru (Dronacharya), and was known as Guru ka Gaon (Village of the Guru), and later Gurgaon.

Once a sleepy town on the outskirts of New Delhi, its potential was quickly realized after the liberalization of the indian economy post 1990s, due to its proximity to New Delhi and smart policizing by Haryana government. Recently, Haryana was the first state in the nation to Introduce VAT (Value Added Tax).

Today, skyscrapers and modern shopping malls dot the new city, which saw a major real estate boom in the late 1990’s and post 2000’s.

Gurgaon is India’s outsourcing capital, housing major multinationals such as Niksun inc.,Alcatel, HCL technologies, IBM Daksh, eFunds, Fidelity Investments, Agilent, General Electric, IBM, GE, Vertex, American Express, Keane, Siemens, Convergys, Ericsson, Hewitt, Hindustal Lever Limited HLL (the Indian division of Unilever) and British Airways. Other reputable companies such as Hitachi Metals, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, GSK, HP, Aviva, New York Life, Citibank, Gilette, Nokia, Xerox, General Motors, Trinity BPM, Nestle, etc. have made Gurgaon their corporate headquarters. The biggest car and motorcycle manufacturers in India, namely Maruti Udyog and Hero Honda are also located in Gurgaon, producting a whopping 50% of India’s motoroized 4-wheeled and 2-wheeled vehicles.

Thousands of professionals have recently made their home in Gurgaon, buying apartments in newly constructed colonies and condominiums. World class residential colonies and commercial complexes have created a trend of high profile professionals to migrate to this erstwhile lesser known city. Owing to the numerous skyscrapers (albeit of modest height), existing and upcoming, Gurgaon is termed as the Seattle of India. Gurgaon is also called the mall capital of India due to the sprawling shopping malls that have mushroomed to live up to the deeper pockets of the residents of Gurgaon and nearby Delhi state. The fast growing population with ever growing purchasing power has created a huge demand for housing and property prices have escalated multifolds in recent years.

Quality of life in the privately managed estates in Gurgaon remain to be of very high standards due to uninterrupted water electricity, guarded security, private parking, common area maintenance and sanitation being a de-facto norm than an exception. Road layout and conditions are of much better quality as compared to the other bigger and more influential cities of this country.

The main problem remains to be availability of public transport which is, in practical terms, negligible. Plans to extend the Delhi Metro to Gurgaon still remains on paper as of now, although this extension will bring to the residents of Delhi and Gurgaon alike, badly needed public transport connectivity between the two neighbouring cities.

The eight lane toll expressway between Gurgaon and New Delhi, scheduled to become operational in Apr 2007 (delayed by 2 years) will provide non-stop connectivity to the International Airport and Dhaula Kuan in Delhi over a distance of 28 kilometers (18 miles), and includes 7 flyovers and 5 underpasses along the stretch.