District Gurgaon
Gurgaon
Gurgaon is the sixth largest city in the Indian state of Haryana. According to 2007 India census, Gurgaon has a population of 2 million.Gurgaon has grown extensively during the last decade due to its proximity to Delhi and emergence as a major outsourcing destination and real estate market in northern India.
An important town in ancient Hindu mythology, Gurgaon is one of Delhi's four major satellite cities and is therefore considered to be a part of the National Capital Region of India.
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. In the ancient times, the name Gurgaon was originally said to be "Guru-Gram". In the original Sanskrit language, Guru means "teacher", which in this case refers to (Guru Dronacharya) and Gram means a (village). The village was gifted by the Pandavas and Kauravas to their Guru (Dronacharya), and was therefore known as Guru - Gram, (Village of the Guru). The sanskriticised "gram" was over a period of time rounded off to a colloquial "gaon" and hence the name to Gurgaon.
In 1861, Gurgaon was transferred from North-Western Provinces to Punjab. Before Partition of India in 1947, this area had a significant Urdu speaking Muslim population. Most of them migrated to Pakistan afterwards.
Initially a small farming village located south of Delhi, Gurgaon saw a massive increase in its population and economy after real estate major, DLF Group, bought farms owned by local people and started developing housing societies for upper-middle class residents of Delhi. One such housing society, DLF City, became a real estate phenomenon in northern India with many Delhites preferring the greener and newly planned Gurgaon over the congested and heavily polluted metropolis.
Genpact's facility in Gurgaon, Maruti Udyog's facility in Gurgaon, Galaxy Mall in GurgaonFavorable tax policy by the Haryana government, improvement in city's infrastructure by Haryana Urban Development Authority and the need of a business center close to Indira Gandhi International Airport saw the emergence of Gurgaon as one of the most prominent outsourcing and offshoring hubs in South Asia. Real estate, automobiles, retail and banking are other major industries. Gurgaon contributes over 50% of Haryana's income tax revenues along with Faridabad.
The distribution of outsourcing companies is skewed towards non-IT services. India's outsourcing industry was born in Gurgaon in 1997 when GE Capital International Services (GECIS) was set up as the India-based business process services operations of GE Capital. Later in 2005, GECIS became an independent company - Genpact, which is now headquartered in Gurgaon. A plethora of BPO and KPO firms such as Genpact, Evalueserve, Dell, Accenture, Hewitt Associates,Copal Partners and Convergys dot the cityscape. A few IT and pharmaceutical firms also exist in the city. Several auto-manufacturing facilities also exist, though they do not dominate the city's economy in the manner they did a decade ago.
The outsourcing boom has led to a rapid growth in employment prospects and local wages, leading to a mushrooming of shopping malls, swank restaurants and entertainment facilities. Demand for such lifestyle options is driven by the demographic shift to a younger, more cosmopolitan, more affluent and better educated population. The native population of Gurgaon however have gained very little economically and continue to remain poor, given the overall success of Gurgaon. This has been observed to have led to a considerably high crime rate compared to other parts of India where such towns have come up.
Today, Gurgaon is the regional head-office of Alcatel-Lucent, Niksun, IBM, Opera Solutions and Bain & Company. Most of them are IT companies. Gurgaon is also the headquarters of two biggest automobile manufacturers in India: Hero Honda and Maruti Udyog.
