Advisory
India offers immense opportunities, but entering and operating in this market requires expert navigation. At GCS, we provide strategic advisory services tailored to help startups and corporates establish and scale operations in India with clarity and compliance.
Our team of industry veterans and functional specialists support you at every step—from choosing the right entry structure to finding reliable local partners.
Depending on the sector and type of products and/or services, there are multiple legal entities and market entry options and strategies for starting a business in India. One needs to make a suitable choice, considering various factors like ease of setting up, impact of taxation, flexibility of operations, regulatory framework, current and likely policies, etc.
Currently, the following are some of the options for starting and managing a business in India:
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A Liaison/Project office
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Branch
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Private Limited Company (Subsidiary)
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Limited Liability Partnership
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Joint venture
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Partnership
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Sole proprietor
GCS can help you identify the most suitable form based on specific factors and convenience for your business.
Entry Strategy
Having identified the appropriate form of entry, it is essential to know the applicable laws and regulations to be followed, licenses and approvals to be obtained from the relevant authorities and intimations and declarations to be submitted at various stages of set up. There are multiple layers of government in India, such as the central / state governments and various local authorities. Also, there are multiple departments of the Government to deal with at these levels, like: the Ministry of Company Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, Customs, Direct taxes, Goods and Services Tax, Stamp Duty, Pollution Control, etc. Also, specific regulations exist for different industries such as Chemicals, Food and Beverages, Fertilisers, Pharmaceuticals and Infrastructure projects.
It may also be relevant to know the possibility of claiming incentives, if any, announced by the Central or State Governments and the mechanism to claim the same.
GCS can guide you on all the above aspects to help you identify the optimal course of action and effectively design and implement a plan for setting up and maintaining a legally compliant business unit in India.
Industry-Specific Analysis:
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India is a vast, geographically, climatically, socially and culturally diverse country. It comprises of 29 States and 7 Union Territories, 4000 cities and over 600,000 small towns. Choosing the best location is hence a major challenge.
GCS can help you identify the best location keeping the following factors in focus:
Type of industry
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Availability and cost of required manpower
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Availability of land and its cost
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Proximity to the relevant markets and raw material sources
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Logistics and other related infrastructure
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Local Government policies and incentives
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Law and order situation
Location Analysis:
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Having identified the appropriate form and location for the business, the immediate next step could be to identify appropriate local partners. The partner may be a vendor of materials, a contract manufacturer or a banker. With its large database of businesses, GCS can help you identify appropriate business and service partners. If you have already identified and/or selected some, GCS can help you evaluate the most appropriate one by conducting due diligence on various parameters.
Local Partners Search: