I am a software engineer, I live here and I assure that I don't work in a consulting company. A lot of my friends actually don't. Infosys and TCS may be big but they are not the only companies in here, you know. It's like saying there no companies in SV other that social media empires.
> What are the excellenet Universities in Pune? Universiy of Pune? Symbiosis? They may not be IIT's or MIT's but they are better than a lot of other universities in India and in Asia. Plus you have lot of other institues such as FTII and a lot of government/military institutes. Certainly a better intellectual environment than other places in Asia.
No offense but it looks like your knowledge of Pune comes from a outdated source or a glance over a google search.
> Universiy of Pune? Symbiosis? They may not be IIT's or MIT's but they are better than a lot of other universities in India and in Asia
Even students in India won't go there until they can't make it to the top 20 - 25 Universities in India. Dude he lives in SFO which is the home of Stanford and University of California and has more nobel laurates than rest of Asia combined.
Come on man. I get you like Pune. But this is just a terrible advice. Pune doesn't have anything to justify a person moving all the way from SFO especially if they are a foreigner.
You should take a look into this blog post https://medium.com/@oliviagoldstein/a-year-in-india-told-by-....
Although Pune has the highest number of expats of any city in India, and is generally safe/accepting of expat men and women. (Although overall India is quite unsafe for women and I agree with you that anyone who wants to relocate to India should first spend a nice long holiday/internship here)