India introduced its first-ever GCC policy at the 2024 Bengaluru Tech Summit with an aim to bring in 1,000 GCCs, generate 3.5 lakh new jobs, and hit $50 billion in economic output by 2029. Karnataka alone already hosts more than 875 GCCs – around 30% of India’s total. The state employs 6 lakh people and contributes $22.2 billion annually.
According to an AIM Research report, third-party companies or GCC enablers play a crucial role in the successful establishment and operation of GCCs. Their expertise simplify the complex process of setting up a GCC, from selecting the right location to navigating regulatory frameworks, ensuring infrastructure readiness, and recruiting talent.
These firms provide specialised knowledge and local insights, which help multinational corporations minimise risks, reduce setup time, and lower operational costs.
Moreover, third-party facilitators bring valuable industry experience and networks, thereby facilitating a smoother integration of the GCC into the global operations of the parent company. By using their expertise, companies can focus on their core business while ensuring their GCC runs efficiently.
According to AIM Research, top PeMa (penetration and maturity) Quadrant GCC service providers in India include ANSR, EY, HCL, Deloitte and KPMG.
“As of today, GCCs are close to around $34 billion in terms of net economic value…We expect that they have the potential to grow to almost $75 to $80 billion by 2025. More importantly, the economic value that they add to India as a country is far higher – almost three times the direct revenue that comes from the GCCs,” Gaurav Gupta, GCC industry lead of Deloitte India, said in a podcast with ET Now.
Highlighting some policy-related hurdles, he further said, “One is from a policy perspective. While we have had some incentives that were given to the GCC sector almost 10 years ago, over a period of time…they’ve gone away. To try and attract more GCCs to India, we need to look at what other incentives can be provided.”
Talent remains a big focus
“India has been a great talent story, but the talent needs of GCCs are evolving. We need to see what new skill sets are required and ensure we bridge the demand-supply gap there,” Gupta said.
GCC enablers have stepped in to fill these gaps. Deloitte India helps GCCs become innovation centres by offering consulting on digital transformation, nurturing start-up collaborations, and focusing on futuristic tech.
According to Deloitte, focusing on innovation and advanced technology is becoming a necessity for every business.
Meanwhile, when it comes to start-ups, accessing global markets via GCCs using their domain expertise and brand reputation, and accessing the physical and virtual infrastructure of GCCs are among the many perks of such partnerships.
Management consulting firm Zinnov, established in 2002, has been recognised for helping Fortune 500 companies with market entry, product engineering, and scaling operations.
Nilesh Thakker, president of Zinnov, and Karthik Padmanabhan, managing partner of GCCs in Zinnov, stressed, “True ownership in tech means owning the whole process – from strategy to design, building, and updating. It’s a call for GCCs to step up, create more value, and lead in global innovation.”
The firm’s expertise spans automation, AI, and technology consulting. It offers services such as GCC setup and roadmap design, talent strategy, digital transformation, operational optimisation, location analysis, and governance.
Zinnov also provides specialised solutions like the GCC Blueprint Model for launching and expanding global centres, its Talent 360 Platform for workforce planning, and ongoing Zinnov Zones reports for comprehensive service provider evaluations.
EY, on the other hand, was recognised as the leader for GCC/GIC Setup Capabilities in India in Everest Group’s PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2024.
“With a team of 10,000 practitioners, including former GCC CXOs, EY is supporting international organisations set up and evolve their GCCs/GICs by transforming them into innovation-driven centres of strategic value,” Kunal Ghatak, global business services partner at EY India, said.
Meanwhile, ANSR, a global leader in establishing and operating GCCs for enterprises, stated, “ANSR is redefining India’s role on the global stage. By enabling over 135 GCCs and driving $2 billion in investments, ANSR is at the forefront of fostering innovation, nurturing talent, and catalysing growth for global enterprises.”
Digital services company and GCC tech enabler GlobalLogic has also noticed a major shift. “A lot of companies in the last couple of years have started empowering the GCCs,” Piyush Jha managing director of GlobalLogic India and APAC said in an interview with AIM.
“Since we have specialised ourselves in the product development space for the last 22-23 years, it becomes very natural for us to start getting into synergistic motions with these GCCs.”
Emerging Nano GCC Space
Suchita Vishnoi, co-founder and CMO at gatewAI, explained to AIM that starting in 2024, the company – a GCC enabler – decided to “change the way GCCs are coming to India. She added that gatewAI shifted the focus from old-school IT outsourcing to an “AI era” approach.
Instead of competing solely on cost, gatewAI aims to offer “GCC as a service with AI-enabled service offerings” and zeroes in on “nano GCCs”, typically teams with five to 50 employees.
“We say we are born in the AI era. We are not born in the IT outsourcing era…which makes us very nimble, very agile, very new age in the way we are adaptive to the requirements that any GCC brings,” Vishnoi further said.
According to her, NASSCOM has predicted the number of GCCs to reach 2,200 by 2030.
“That’s a huge opportunity for us…We have a strong five-year window to capitalise and help a lot of the nano GCCs, the small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that want to set up innovation hubs here in India.”
In short, it’s a new age for GCCs in India. Companies want more than just cheap labour; they’re looking for a place to build products, develop cutting-edge tech, and tap into world-class talent.
“Any company that’s coming to India for the first time will say, ‘I need groundwork research done so that I know that the foundation I’m setting is for success’,” Vishnoi concluded.For policymakers, enablers, and GCCs themselves, the future is about collaboration, creative solutions, and continuous innovation. After all, the path to hitting that ambitious $50 billion mark, and beyond, will rely on how quickly they can adapt to changing tech trends and talent needs, one GCC at a time.
