Moving to Pune India. What should I negotiate?

I am a Canadian who has been offered the opportunity to relocate to Pune India for a 6 month term. I would be relocating with my husband and 8 month old daughter.

Having never lived abroad before, I am looking for advice in terms of what I should negotiate with my HR department as part of the move.

Also, does anyone have specific experience with Pune, India? What is the city like? Any recommendations in terms of areas to live in?

Does anyone know of private child care facilities in Pune? I would like to expose my daughter to other children while she is there so would be interested in learning about programs that might be good for her socialization skills.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Ellegro,

Congratulations on your opportunity to come and work in India.

Pune is a wonderful place to live and it has got good infrastructure too. However, the city is now face with Swine Flu problem and lot of people have got affected and few have died too.

So I would suggest that you move to Pune only after few months. Just google Swine Flu and Pune and you will find the news.

Cheers,
Harsha

Hi Ellegro,

Pune is a very good city to live. You would find many expats as well. You can find most of the things a foreigner would look for.
Also, it is one of the famous historical place in India.

About living place, it depends on your working place. I would suggest you to stay near to your working place as traffic is a big problem here.
However, as far as I have seen, most of the people relocating here from other countries, prefer areas close to Koregaon Park, Vimannagar etc.

Hi,

If you are coming here only for 6 months, then it doesn't matter too much for what you should & shouldn't negotiate. Accommodation & car must be something which I guess you must have already negotiated on.

For your kid, there are few play school which you can target though I believe that your kid is too small for that. Also, the recommendations depends on which place you are living. The best you can do is to have social outing with neighbor's kids. They can also guide you on any good play school or social activities around the neighborhood.

For area to live in, the best will be to live close to your work place. A good area to live for expats is Koregaon Park.