[thekhatribharat]

Before taking any of the steps you will have to finalise the approach i.e whether you are looking for a longer term solution or a shorter term solution.

Most of the startups start with short term plan i.e hire folks as consultants with US registered entity. And then as per the long term roadmap, hire a site lead who can start the process of registering india entity and setup all the payroll and other stuff. After a certain number of people things like PF and all become necessary. There are a few consultancy firms who handle all of these things.

Consultant approach works well for initial hires. Also, the india entity registration process takes atleast 3 months, so in the starting most of the firms start with consultants.