India’s GCC Success: What Will Shape Its Future?

The Global Capability Centers (GCCs) story in India is no longer about scale alone — it is about strategic value creation.  Talent depth is translating into global leadership.  AI is upgrading work, not reducing relevance.  Engineering Research and Development (ER&D) especially in integrating artificial intelligence (AI) with the physical world and robotics is becoming the growth engine. Although companies are focusing on expansion, multiple factors involved ascertain the future.

Looking Beyond Metros

Tech giants such as HCLTech continue to see strong GCC momentum, with a focus on enabling next‑generation GCCs aligned to enterprise strategy. “We are building scale across digital engineering, AI, cloud, and transformation, while co‑creating innovation ecosystems with clients, academia, and startups. We have led Tier‑II expansion through campuses in Lucknow, Nagpur, Vijayawada, and Madurai, enabling a distributed delivery model via the New Vistas program. These centres now support GCC transitions from metros, leveraging Tier‑II cost and talent advantages,” said Kiran Babu Cherukuri, EVP and Global GCC Practice Head, HCLTech.

Tier-II cities are reshaping location strategy.  Policy and infrastructure are aligning behind the model and long-term projections point toward thousands of GCCs and transformative economic impact by 2030. However, this growth story isn’t without challenges.

“On the policy front, multiple states offer GCC incentives, but companies face delays in setting up operations and managing compliance.  For instance, nearly 30-35 approvals are required for establishing a GCC – many of the requirements are common.  A single window clearance could be supplemented by a single portal that connects to all departments dealing with the approval at State and Center together with a single document credential to reduce effort.  A more harmonized national framework could accelerate scale,” said Rohan Lobo, Partner and GCC Industry Leader at Deloitte South Asia.

Another challenge is the ecosystem depth that determines innovation velocity.  “Service providers, startups, educational institutions and policy makers have to work together in pushing innovation at scale that supports the case for GCCs,” Lobo added.

Traditionally, GCCs concentrated in Tier I cities. Today, Coimbatore, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Indore, and Chandigarh are emerging as credible alternatives, not just secondary options. These cities offer 40–60 per cent operational cost reduction, approx 20 per cent better talent retention and improved quality of life and employee experience.

“Tier-II cities currently host 14 per cent of emerging enterprise GCCs, and by 2030, approx 350,000 new GCC jobs are expected in non-metro locations. Policy support is accelerating this shift. States including Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh have introduced GCC-specific incentives, including capex/opex subsidies, payroll support, and single-window clearances,” Lobo explained.

The risks & renaissance

India executes much of the business operations, analytics, IT operations and engineering, but strategic ownership of these programs often resides at headquarters. This creates a gap between execution capability and innovation authority.

Nearly 80 per cent of GCCs have less than 10 per cent of their leadership roles based in India, meaning critical decisions around investments, platform direction, and IP ownership are often made elsewhere. “Without shifting decision rights, P & L ownership, product leadership, and roadmap control India risks remaining a build location rather than becoming the centre for innovation.  Rapid improvements in AI could overtake the ability of GCC to deliver outcomes through a talent centric approach,” added the Deloitte partner. 

Furthermore, capturing the disproportionately large opportunity in AI enabled robotics requires many aspects to come together.  Robotics demands a fusion of disciplines such as mechanical engineering, embedded systems, computer vision, reinforcement learning, and AI. 

“While GCCs are investing in AI, the depth of robotics-ready talent is still limited. The skills shelf-life is now roughly three years, and 55 per cent of work portfolios face AI-driven change, yet reskilling efforts remain uneven. Only a small fraction of GCCs have established dedicated AI governance or capability centres, which becomes even more critical for robotics where safety, reliability, and real-world deployment risks are higher,” explained Lobo.

Without large-scale multidisciplinary reskilling, India risks having software AI capability but not full-stack robotics engineering depth on a massive emerging trillion-dollar global industry.

Geopolitical shifts & roadmap ahead

Geopolitical shifts are reshaping sourcing strategies, driving demand for resilient operating models. “India remains a preferred GCC destination due to its talent depth, stable policy environment, and mature digital ecosystem, making long‑term growth capability and innovation‑led, not geopolitics‑driven,” added Kiran Babu Cherukuri.

India already has the foundations for sustained GCC growth: a growing talent base, strong digital and engineering capabilities, and an enabling business environment that supports scale, innovation, and increasingly strategic work. India already hosts around 55 per cent of the world’s GCCs, growing at about a 10 per cent CAGR. In FY2024, India had more than 1,700 GCCs employing over 1.9 million professionals, and by 2030, the sector is projected to reach around 2,400 GCCs with nearly 2.5 million employees. 

“Alongside this, India’s geopolitical stance, characterised by good bilateral relations with most countries globally, provides relative insulation from global tensions and enhances its attractiveness as a stable economy to invest and expand in,” said Pankaj Vyas, MD & CEO, Siemens Technology and Services.

India’s GCC growth roadmap is entering a scale-and-depth phase. The country already hosts over 1,700 GCCs employing nearly two million professionals, and this base is expected to expand significantly as enterprises deepen their India footprint, according to a report by flexiple.

“Going forward, growth will be defined by three shifts: First, expansion from Tier-I to emerging cities, unlocking new talent pools and distributed innovation. Second, a transition from service delivery to product, platform, and AI-led engineering ownership. Third, increasing investment in digital, data, and agentic AI capabilities, with over half of GCCs already prioritising these areas,” Vyas added.

By 2030, India is projected to host over 2,400 GCCs and cross $100 billion in market size,reinforcing its position as the global hub for enterprise innovation and engineering, reported PIB. This trajectory aligns with a focus on deeper ownership, platform engineering, and scalable innovation from India.