Gurgaon is close to being a world class city in India. With presence of nearly 500 MNCs and even higher number of Indian corporate giants, Gurgaon has a large expat population. Number of expats living in Gurgaon is higher than any other place in the country. MNCs in Gurgaon have large number of foreigners working in high positions. They have shifted base to Gurgaon along with their families and live like expats.
Delhi was originally popular for expat crowd due to a huge number of foreigners working in embassies of different countries. Now Gurgaon is the new hub for expats who have come here to earn their livelihood and find the city as an attractive place to settle. As many as 700 expat families stay in Gurgaon and surprisingly mingle well with Indian culture.
What Does Gurgaon offer to expats?
High Living Standard
The foremost thing that Gurgaon, the millennium city of India offers to expats is world class housing. Huge integrated residential societies in Gurgaon offer most of the desired facilities to expats. They can choose between pethouse, villa, exclusive floor, or flats. There even are options of fully furnished homes suitable for expats who have come to stay here for a few years.
The premium residential societies of Gurgaon offer 24×7 security to its residents, one of the major things that expats are looking for. Apart from security and safety they also get facilities like gym, swimming pool, club, maintained parks, and much more by staying in high end Gurgaon societies.
World Class School Education
Expat families with young children get a lot of value in Gurgaon schools. The city has a bouquet of International schools that other IB (International Baccalaureate) curriculum. The presence of world schools in Gurgaon makes it easier for expat kids to be at par with global education standards. Some of these schools are American Excelsior, Scottish High International School, Sun City World School, Pathways World School, and many more.
Easy Availability of International Grocery
Expats find it easy to get their food brands and grocery in Gurgaon. Grocery stores like Needs (chain of supermarkets), Le March (also known as Sugar and Spice), specialize in selling cold cuts, imported cheese, Caviar, Pate, fajita base imported breakfast cereals, Haegan Dazz ice cream, Heinz baby food, and a long list of other food items. Spencer’s Supermarket in Gurgaon is another favorite destination for expats to buy their favorite grocery. This store has a separate section for cold cuts and bakery, especially targeted at international requirements.
These are a few Grocery stores in Gurgaon that target expats and in supply of international brands.
World Cuisine Restaurants in Gurgaon
Not only food and grocery, Gurgaon also caters to expats when it comes to eating out. A host of international cuisine restaurants are successfully catering to expats in Gurgaon. A few of these restaurants are K2 (Korean), Dynasty (Japanese), Asia seven (Burmese, Vietnamese, and Chinese), Palmyra (Mediterranean), 56 (Italian), and so on.
Overall expats enjoy better living standards in Gurgaon. Definitely, there are infrastructure problems like broken roads, poor law and order, hygiene issues, but overall they get a better quality of life in Gurgaon as compared to any other place in North India.
Another challenge for expats is to find suitable entertainment and recreation options in the city. Although Gurgaon is gradually coming up with centers like Epicenter and Kingdom of Dreams, the city still cannot match the global standard when it comes to citizen service and entertainment options.
Online forums like gurgaonconnection.com help expats to interact with each other and discuss issues with people from similar backgrounds.
All said and done the number of expats in Gurgaon is gradually growing as people from different countries like Japan, Korea, USA, Singapore, China, Italy, are thronging Gurgaon for work opportunities and a tryst with unique Indian culture.
Nidhi Sadana
4 responses so far
1 diana ~ May 29, 2011 at 5:57 am
My husband is a pilot of mexicana airlilnes which has been almost declared in bankrupcy in mexico. He had been working here for 37 years and indigo airlines is a very good option that has been presented to us. It is really far away from home as the base of the airline is in Gurgaon city .
My husband just gave his first information to the airline as capitan of Airbus and we have to wait the second part for an interview, but I am starting to search all the information of Gurgaon and please if you have something that will be important for an expat I will appreciate it very much. My husband has 57 and I am 54 years old and we have 2 daughters and 1 son but they are already are working and live by themselves. So we will be by ourselves there if everything brings us to this new life.
2 Hritvick Sen ~ Jun 1, 2011 at 2:01 am
Hi Diana, This is Hritvick. You haven’t been very specific what you and your husband are looking for. You’ve lived here (as you’ve mentioned), but I suppose elsewhere in India.
You can check out a site for expats called ‘expatexchange’, which pretty much deals with teething troubles faced by the international community. Also, mail me at hritvick.sen@arapmedia.com if this doesn’t help out.
Best of luck,
Hritvick
3 homehelp4india ~ Feb 29, 2012 at 6:38 am
Hi, We moved back to India about2and half years back from Africa and found that domestic services lack a professional approach and are totally disorganised.We along with couple of other expatriate friends decided to establish a company called Homehelp4india.com to provide trained maids and drivers with verifiable references.In case anybody wants to contact us can do so through our website homehelp4india.com and can know more about our company.
4 Shalini Singh ~ Apr 11, 2012 at 6:36 am
Hi,
This is regarding a modern manhattan style designer apartment which is up for rent in heritage city in gurgaon. It is centrally located- in the heart of gurgaon, next to mgf mall and mg road metro station. It is fully furnished- equipped with t.v. R.o., microwave, fridge, air conditioners, a corner tub ( 56x 56 inches) and an inbuilt bar. Wifi and cable t.v. The place has 100percent power back, security and maintenance, huge walkways and beautifully manicured gardens. There is a grocery store, veg mart , beauty parking and library within the premises. It has basket ball, tt and tennis courts as well. We designed this place for ourselves and because of certain reasons we are giving it out for rent, so we are on a lookout for someone who will maintain it well. Contact us if anyone is interested. My no is 9582596758 (brokers please do not contact) p.s. We moved from Los Angeles about three years back.
Leave your feedback/comments