Haryana, UP, Karnataka and Maharashtra have notified dedicated GCC incentive policies; Telangana's is in drafting. Find out in three steps what Haryana, UP, Telangana, Karnataka and Maharashtra would pay your centre - then explore everything else that makes the decision.
Built the way deals are actually structured today. Pick how you plan to take the office, enter your monthly numbers, and we derive the annual cost base, apply each state's published rates and caps, and tell you plainly where you are not eligible and what it would take to qualify.
Tell us the mandate and what matters. We re-rank six cities live across twelve factors — incentives, talent, rents, infrastructure, air quality, stability, connectivity and more.
Headline terms only — our advisory pack holds the 28-parameter clause-by-clause comparison.
| Policy lever | Haryana · Gurgaon | UP · Noida | Telangana · Hyderabad | Karnataka · Bengaluru | Maharashtra · Mumbai/Pune |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Policy status | Notified 27-May-2026, valid 5 yrs | Notified 2024, ~2 yrs track record | No dedicated policy yet — new policy in drafting (May-2026 directive) | India's first GCC policy (2024-29) | Notified 3-Nov-2025, valid to FY30 |
| Capital subsidy | 50-75% of eligible capex, capped per 100 employees | 25%, capped Rs 10-25 Cr | None standard — bespoke CCITI packages | No office capex subsidy; innovation-lab grants 40-75% (Rs 3-5 Cr caps) | 20% of investment, capped by GCC size class |
| Rent / opex subsidy | 50-65% of eligible opex, 5-9 yrs, capped | 20% for 5 yrs, capped Rs 40-80 Cr/yr | ~25% rental subsidy, 3 yrs (ICT policy) | None in Bengaluru; 50% rent (Rs 2 Cr cap) Beyond Bengaluru | 10-20% of actual rent for 5 years |
| Payroll incentive | Rs 1-1.2 lakh/local employee/yr for 10 yrs | 25-35% of salary, tapering, 4 yrs, capped Rs 3-7 lakh/emp/yr | Rs 20,000 one-time per Telangana-college hire + training subsidy | None in Bengaluru; EPF Rs 3,000/emp/mo × 2 yrs Beyond Bengaluru | 40-50% payroll subsidy, high-skilled jobs (+10% diversity) — caps per annexure |
| Eligibility gate | 100+ employees within 1 yr | Rs 15-20 Cr+ investment OR 100-200+ employees | Case-by-case (CCITI) | Mostly 100+ employees | Captive GCCs only — BPO/call-centre & pure sales excluded |
| Single window | HEPC · 7/45-working-day disbursement SLA | Invest UP / PIU | TS-iPASS — statutory 15/30-day deemed approvals | EIT-BT / KDEM · 30-45 working days | MAITRI · industry status, 24×7 ops |
| Watch-outs | Brand new — no disbursement track record | Knife-edge headcount gates in Noida (200+) | Nothing codified until the new policy notifies | Cash reserved for Beyond-Bengaluru sites | Newest policy; annexure caps still bedding in |
Subsidies last 3-5 years; a GCC runs 15+. These operating factors decide more location calls than any subsidy line. Scored 1 (weak) to 5 (strong).
| Factor | Gurgaon | Noida | Hyderabad | Bengaluru | Mumbai | Pune |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade-A rent Rs/sq.ft./month |
2.0 110-185 | 4.5 56-105 | 4.0 55-90 | 2.0 65-150 · +14%/yr | 1.5 100-350 (BKC top) | 4.0 60-110 |
| Talent pool depth | 4.0 Consulting · finance · leadership | 3.5 Engineering · NCR pipeline | 4.5 Product · AI · pharma-tech | 5.0 Deepest in India | 4.0 BFSI capital of India | 4.0 Engineering · auto · IT |
| GCC ecosystem centres in city |
4.5 NCR ~465 (with Noida) | 3.5 Fast-growing; MSFT, LG anchors | 4.5 355+ · world #2 | 5.0 875+ · world #1 | 3.5 BFSI-skewed base | 4.0 ~300+ · engineering-led |
| Infrastructure & power | 3.5 Flooding pockets | 4.0 Planned grid | 4.5 ORR · planned corridors | 2.5 Traffic · water stress | 3.5 Dense but resilient | 3.5 Growing strain |
| Social & political stability | 3.0 Periodic state agitations | 3.5 Improving trend | 4.0 Stable · pro-industry | 4.0 Stable · language friction at edges | 4.0 Commercial capital | 4.5 Historically calm |
| Air quality annual pattern |
1.5 Winter AQI 300-450 | 1.5 Same NCR airshed | 3.5 Moderate | 3.5 Moderate | 3.0 Coastal relief · spikes | 3.5 Moderate |
| Local transport | 3.5 Metro + last-mile gaps | 4.0 Metro grid · wide roads | 4.0 Metro + ORR · airport line WIP | 2.5 India's toughest commutes | 4.5 Locals + expanding metro | 3.0 Young metro · road-led |
| International connectivity | 5.0 IGI ~15 km · India's #1 hub | 3.5 IGI 25-30 km · Jewar new, far | 4.0 RGIA 30-40 km · growing intl | 4.5 BLR strong intl · 35-55 km | 4.5 BOM + new Navi Mumbai Intl | 2.5 Limited direct intl routes |
| Cost of living & retention | 3.0 High CoL · NCR churn | 3.5 Lower CoL | 4.0 Best CoL-to-talent ratio | 3.0 Top salaries · top attrition | 2.5 Housing pushes salaries up | 4.0 Strong retention story |
| Climate & seismic risk business continuity |
2.5 Seismic Zone IV · flood pockets | 2.5 Seismic Zone IV | 4.5 Zone II · low risk | 4.0 Zone II · 2022-style flash floods | 2.5 Zone III · monsoon flooding | 4.0 Zone III · moderate |
| Regulatory speed | 4.0 7/45-day disbursement SLA (new) | 3.5 No statutory SLA | 5.0 TS-iPASS 15/30-day deemed approval | 4.0 30-45 working days | 4.0 MAITRI · industry status | |
| Published cash incentives core city, 5-yr model |
4.0 Rs ~28 Cr | 5.0 Rs ~66 Cr | 2.5 Rs ~12 Cr (floor · negotiable) | 2.0 Rs ~5 Cr (labs only) | 4.0 New 2025 policy · caps TBC |
Three reads most clients miss: ① NCR's winter air quality is a genuine senior-hire and expat blocker for 3-4 months a year — and both NCR cities sit in Seismic Zone IV, which matters for BCP-rated facilities. ② Bengaluru wins any mandate that must have rare skills and loses volume mandates on cost and commutes. ③ Mumbai is a BFSI-specific play; Pune is the quiet value pick — Maharashtra's new payroll subsidy on a Rs 60-110 rent base with the calmest operating environment of the six.
The GCC story is no longer a cost story. India's centres have moved from back offices to product, engineering and decision-making hubs — and states are now paying companies to join.
Every successful GCC lands the same eight workstreams together. Miss one, and the location savings evaporate into tax exposure, compliance penalties or a hiring stall. This is the full picture we manage.
Private-limited subsidiary vs LLP vs branch office; FEMA/FDI routing; intercompany service agreements; SEZ vs non-SEZ election.
Defensible cost-plus markup, safe-harbour elections, GST registrations, corporate-tax planning — and structuring state incentives so they survive an audit.
Banking & capital infusion, payroll runs, statutory audit calendar, MIS the HQ CFO actually trusts, incentive-claim filing discipline.
EOR-first vs direct hiring; city-wise comp benchmarks (15-25% apart); leadership-first ramp sequencing; PF/ESI, POSH, Shops & Establishments compliance.
Companies Act cadence, DPDP Act 2023 readiness, sector overlays (RBI/IRDAI for BFSI), SOC 2 / ISO 27001 for parent-side audit comfort.
Redundant connectivity, data-residency architecture, cybersecurity baseline — and BCP siting informed by the seismic/air-quality matrix below.
DIY entity vs Build-Operate-Transfer vs GCC-as-a-Service. Control, speed and cost pull in different directions — the right answer depends on scale and timeline.
Our core craft: city shortlisting, occupancy modelling across conventional / furnished / managed, and state-incentive capture — the tools on this page.
mStreet leads the location and real-estate decision — our home turf for 15+ years — and orchestrates empanelled legal, tax, HR and technology specialists around it, so you sign one mandate instead of chasing six vendors. Single point of accountability from "why India" to go-live and incentive disbursement.
Mandate definition, cost model, board-ready case with incentive scenarios.
City shortlist (tools above), entity filing, banking, TP structure design.
State applications lodged, office LOI, country-head & anchor hires.
Fit-out or managed handover, IT stack, policies, first team seated.
Hiring ramp, compliance cadence, incentive disbursement tracking.
Ordered May-2026; expected to bring formula-driven subsidies, richer beyond-core (CURE) terms, a ~1,500-acre Data City and Bharat Future City. Until notified, large GCCs negotiate under the written "Meet or Beat" commitment.
Size-class caps decide whether the 40-50% payroll headline is transformative or merely competitive. We validate against the annexure before any client commitment.
The 2026 policy promises a 7/45-working-day disbursement SLA with interest penalties for delay. Late-2026 cycles will show whether it holds — a key de-risking datapoint.
Behind this page sits the full journey playbook — entity, tax, HR and compliance orchestration — plus a 28-parameter clause-by-clause policy comparison, a live occupancy-cost model (warm shell / furnished / managed), and validated eligibility mapping. In 30 minutes we'll run your actual numbers — and tell you honestly if the money isn't worth chasing.