India Wants More Global Capability Centres. Here's How To Build The Next 1,000

Once the global back-end engine for IT, finance, and support services, these offshore units of multinational companies are now poised to do far more. From leading innovation and developing products, to building AI systems. 

That shift is beckoning both government and industry to rethink the ecosystem that made India a GCC powerhouse.

“What brought the last 2,000 will not get the next 3,000,” warned Manoj Marwah, Partner at EY. Competition has intensified from countries like the Philippines and Ireland. 

About 1,800 GCCs in India today employ about 2.16 million professionals. By 2030, that number is expected to reach 2.8 million. Their contribution to India’s economy is at US$ 68 billion, which is about 1.6 per cent of the national GDP. If all goes well, this is expected to rise to nearly US$ 200 billion in the next 5 years. 

“The Indian GCC ecosystem is moving beyond execution, and is also becoming a centre of strategic leadership and transformation,” said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at the inaugural GCC Summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) earlier this week. 

But this growth will not be automatic. “We need to move faster,” she said, pointing to examples of regulatory coordination, infrastructure upgrades, and better talent alignment.

Government Progress And Next Steps

The imperative and intention is to keep India competitive in the global landscape. “We need to attract GCCs from newer markets, like Japan, ASEAN, and the Nordic countries. So, how can we use the Government of India's muscle — trade deals, FTAs, trade missions — to position India into these newer markets?” said Marwah.

Secretary of Commerce Sunil Barthwal has stressed the role of free trade agreements (FTAs) in supporting GCCs beyond manufacturing. FTAs are a complex set of agreements; an important part of them is the services sector, he pointed out. 

The India-UK FTA, he added, includes a chapter on innovation. This is an unprecedented shift in trade diplomacy aimed at making India an attractive base for research and development. The hope is that the buck doesn’t stop with this one agreement. 

Digital infrastructure is another priority. Neeraj Mittal, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, has highlighted the role of rapid progress in 5G rollout and rural broadband. These are enablers of GCC.

If we compare, data in India now costs around 9 cents (Rs 8) per GB, compared to the average of US$ 2.6 (Rs 223) in the world. This is a significant enabler of GCCs in India. 

Yet, about 95 per cent of these centres are concentrated in six hubs. The challenge is to expand the progress to Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities in India for more inclusive development.

This includes not just digital and physical infrastructure, but also social infrastructure, like quality schools, healthcare facilities, reliable public transport, and housing to attract and retain skilled talent beyond the metros.

We're on the right path with government leadership present at such dialogues.

Steps For The Industry

While the government can create the conditions, the transition to higher-value GCCs does need to come from the industry itself. 

“GCCs are no longer about BPO work,” said Sunil Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Yotta, who is known as the ‘data centre man of India’. “You need to create platforms and host them here. The computing infrastructure will have to be built here.”

He highlighted India’s growing capacity in AI infrastructure, with GPU compute now available at less than a dollar per hour, which is nearly a tenth of US rates.

But cost isn’t the only differentiator any more; education and skills also need to evolve. “We need to build future-ready engineers, not just good students,” said Rudra Pratap, Vice-Chancellor of Plaksha University, urging closer collaboration between GCCs and academia to develop problem-solving capabilities at scale. 

As India eyes the next wave of global capability work, it faces a simple truth: To stay ahead, the model that made it a GCC hub for the world now needs to be reimagined.