Gurgaon is the industrial and financial center of Haryana. This city is the sixth largest city in the Indian state of Haryana and an important town in ancient Hindu mythology, Gurgaon is one of Delhi's four major satellite cities and is part of the National Capital Region of India. Over the past 20 years the city has grown tremendously as a manufacturing, outsourcing and shopping destination due to its infrastructure and its strategic location. A superfluity of BPOs, KPOs and shopping malls dot the cityscape.  More >>

Gurgaon has been under the control of a succession of rulers of Delhi and their appointees. During the British rule in India, Gurgaon was integrated into the Punjab Province where it served as district headquarters. After India's independence, Gurgaon, rather every part of what today is Haryana was a part of the state of Punjab until the reorganization of Punjab in 1966, when Punjab was divided into Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh thus forming Haryana. 

Gurgaon remained a small farming village while neighboring Delhi emerged as India's political capital. Delhi's economic rise attracted a large influx of laborers from neighboring regions like Rajasthan and Bihar rapidly increasing Delhi's population. By early 1990s, Delhi was one of the most populated and crowded cities in the world and the need for a satellite city became more apparent. Gurgaon seemed like an ideal choice given its vast undeveloped farming lands and proximity to Delhi. Haryana Urban Development Authority bought large areas of land from farmers in Gurgaon and developed residential and commercial sectors. Tax incentives by the state government of Haryana and improvement in infrastructure attracted Indian companies and foreign investment and Gurgaon emerged as one of the major manufacturing and service industry hubs in northern India. 

The 2001 census figures of Gurgaon`s population are quite obsolete. Due to ever growing new house and apartment construction since census, an actual (2009) population of 350-450,000 may be realistic. 

The original Gurgaon residents were people from different communities and their profession was agriculture. Today most of the residents in Gurgaon work in the city's booming BPO and KPO industries. Initially a small farming village located southwest of Delhi, Gurgaon saw a massive increase in its population and economy after the real estate developers bought farms owned by local people and started developing housing societies for upper-middle class residents of Delhi. Such housing societies became a real estate phenomenon in northern India with many Delhites preferring the newly planned Gurgaon over the congested and heavily polluted metropolis, Delhi. 

The constructive tax policy taken by the Haryana government, for the construction of buildings by private companies after pressure was placed on the Haryana government by Rajiv Gandhi, and the media in improving the city's infrastructure by Haryana Urban Development Authority, and its proximity to Indira Gandhi International Airport saw the emergence of Gurgaon as one of the most prominent outsourcing and offshoring hubs in the world. The other major industries are real estate, automobiles, retail and banking are other major industries, which contribute to 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. In 2005, GECIS became an independent company - Genpact, which is now headquartered in Gurgaon. This trend continued after several other firms established themselves in the city. Gurgaon also has a major manufacturing industry. Car manufacturing facilities include India's largest passenger car company, Maruti Suzuki, and BMW. Hero Honda, the motor cycle company is based in Gurgaon. 

The outsourcing boom has led to a rapid growth in employment prospects and local wages, leading to a mushrooming of shopping malls, 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. This has also led to boom in the city's retail industry. Gurgaon has also benefited from the aviation boom in India, though it lost the bid for the new international airport in the Delhi area to Greater Noida. India has 16 airlines, out of which IndiGo Airlines, Spice Jet and MDLR Airlines have their headquarters in Gurgaon. 

The present city of Gurgaon can be considered the metropolitan area encompassing every settlement around the original city, and expanding even further with the establishment of new neighborhoods and districts. 

Thousands of professionals have made their home in Gurgaon, living in apartments or in newly constructed colonies and condominiums, and shopping in malls. The fast growing population, with increasing purchasing power, has created a huge demand for housing, resulting in escalating property prices in recent years. 

Real Estate is an important industry in Gurgaon and construction of office complexes and malls has led to an influx of labour from poor and underdeveloped states like Bihar, Bengal and Orrisa and across the border from Bangladesh. Today even in recession, real estate remains the third largest employer in the city after IT Services and retail. The land in and around Gurgaon is fertile but agriculture being not remunerative, farmers have sold land to realty majors, which in turn construct IT parks and office complexes. However there were many protests in Gurgaon as some farmers became millionaires overnight by selling their land to private builders, further unrest was created when the Haryana government (HUDA) and HSIIDC (Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation) acquired thousand of acres at below market rate and sold it in crores to industrialists. It was the real estate boom that leads to the emergence of Gurgaon as a metropolis and world city.