Country guide · India
Moving to India: cost of living, salaries, taxes, visas
World's largest tech-services market; Bangalore + Hyderabad anchor the talent pool; very low cost-of-living for English-speaking professionals.
India's tech sector is the world's largest by headcount — Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, NCR (Delhi/Gurgaon/Noida) and Chennai concentrate the bulk of the international-facing engineering, product and services talent. English is the working language across professional environments.
For inbound relocators, the cost-of-living arbitrage is one of the largest globally — a Western salary stretches dramatically in India. The trade-offs are air quality (Delhi especially), bureaucratic friction for non-Indian nationals (visa categories are narrow), and infrastructure variability outside top-tier neighborhoods.
At a glance
India relocation profile
Mundevo coverage in India
Bangalore is the anchor city for cost-of-living and corridor calculations involving India.
| City | Cost index | Rent index | Safety | Population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bangalore | 28 | 22 | 55 | 8,400,000 |
Tax and visa landscape
Headline tax model + entry-point visa overview for relocators.
- Effective income tax: 13.0%
- Social security (employee): 12.0%
- Total payroll deduction: 25.0%
- VAT: 18.0%
- Currency: INR
Effective rates assume a single salaried filer at country median wage. Special regimes (e.g. expat-favoring schemes) are not applied here — see the visa guide for those.
Visa categories, residency routes, and tax-regime context for relocators are detailed in the dedicated visa guide.
India visa guide →Salary bands at Bangalore — by role
Illustrative gross-salary bands for 6 senior IC roles in Bangalore. Derived from NYC anchor × India pay-tier multiplier. Cross-check Levels.fyi, Glassdoor before negotiating.
| Role | P25 | P50 | P75 | NYC anchor (P50) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software engineer | ₹6,041,667 | ₹7,500,000 | ₹9,583,333 | $180,000 |
| Product manager | ₹6,250,000 | ₹8,125,000 | ₹10,833,333 | $195,000 |
| UX / product designer | ₹4,125,000 | ₹5,437,500 | ₹7,312,500 | $145,000 |
| Marketing manager | ₹3,562,500 | ₹4,875,000 | ₹6,562,500 | $130,000 |
| Data scientist | ₹5,625,000 | ₹7,291,667 | ₹9,583,333 | $175,000 |
| Finance analyst | ₹4,583,333 | ₹6,458,333 | ₹9,166,667 | $155,000 |
Top relocation corridors
Closest peers by cost-of-living index — the moves most commonly considered alongside India.