India's GCC Ecosystem Enters a Transformative Phase
India's Global Capability Centre ecosystem is reaching a critical turning point. These centres, once viewed primarily as cost-efficient offshore support units, are now taking center stage in how multinational corporations develop products, implement technology, and make strategic decisions. The narrative has moved far beyond simple growth metrics, with evolving hiring patterns and increasing pressure on traditional IT services firms signaling a deeper change.
What Are GCCs and Why Do They Matter?
Global Capability Centres represent captive units established by multinational companies to deliver essential services. These include technology development, engineering, finance, analytics, compliance, and increasingly, core research and product innovation. Unlike typical outsourcing arrangements, GCCs function as direct extensions of their parent organizations with long-term commitments.
As of December 2025, India hosts over 1,700 such centres. They have become fundamental pillars for developing white-collar skills across the nation. Their evolution from execution hubs to innovation engines is actively reshaping India's talent market, IT services industry, and long-term economic positioning.
A recent government release emphasized this transformation, stating, "What began as basic support desks have now evolved into innovation powerhouses driving research, design, and development." The release further highlighted their strategic importance, noting, "These GCCs have rapidly grown into strategic hubs for innovation and value creation."
The numbers tell a compelling story. Their combined revenue surged from $40.4 billion in FY19 to $64.6 billion in FY24, representing a healthy annual growth rate of 9.8%. Beyond financial metrics, these centres now employ over 1.9 million people nationwide, actively shaping the future of technology and business from Indian soil.
A More Selective Hiring Approach Emerges
As GCCs assume more complex and business-critical responsibilities, their hiring practices are undergoing significant change. Companies now prioritize capability and impact over mere headcount expansion.
Neeti Sharma, CEO of TeamLease Digital, explained this shift clearly. "GCC hiring has become selective and capability-led compared to the volume hiring of earlier years," she stated. "Hiring today focuses less on adding numbers and more on building depth in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, data analytics, cybersecurity, and governance roles."
She noted that newer roles concentrate on high-impact digital functions. Furthermore, GCCs are increasingly hiring internally through reskilling initiatives, signaling a strategic move from volume-based recruitment to long-term talent architecture development.
Kartik Narayan, CEO of the Jobs Marketplace at Apna.co, confirmed this trend through hiring data. "Sequential hiring growth of 5% to 7% continues to drive overall numbers, which remains impressive," he observed. "However, the more significant shift is occurring in the composition and mix of talent being recruited."
He pointed to a noticeable movement toward more senior positions. Anuradha Mohanty echoed this perspective, highlighting deeper structural changes beyond numerical growth. "Beyond the 12-15% compound annual growth rate in headcount, we are witnessing a maturity migration within GCCs," she remarked, identifying three qualitative shifts in their evolution.
Moving Beyond Cost Arbitrage
The drivers behind GCC expansion in India have evolved dramatically. What originated as a strategy focused on cost and scale is increasingly shifting toward higher-value work, deeper ownership, and greater strategic relevance within global enterprises.
"GCCs in India are no longer merely a volume and cost play," emphasized Neeti Sharma. "They have moved toward delivering high value in automation, research, and development."
Today's expansion stems from a combination of cost advantages, proven capabilities, and growing confidence. GCCs are relocating critical work streams to India, including artificial intelligence engineering, cloud platform management, product development, and risk and compliance functions. Stable policies, strong STEM talent pipelines, and demonstrated delivery maturity have positioned India not just as a delivery hub, but as a core innovation and decision-making centre for international firms.
Kartik Narayan described this phase as the emergence of "GCC 4.0." He explained, "Earlier confidence in having Indian teams handle process execution is now transforming into end-to-end ownership." This expanded responsibility encompasses product conceptualization, design, execution, and even integrating customer feedback loops for improvement.
This shift has elevated leadership roles within India-based centres. "Greater trust is now being placed in Indian leadership positions," Narayan added. "These roles now carry global mandates and are ceasing to be merely back-office functions. Enterprise-wide technology strategy is increasingly being crafted right here in India."
Geopolitical factors also contribute to this trend. "In an increasingly volatile geopolitical era, the need to de-risk operations is becoming a third major driver," Narayan noted. "India is emerging as a hub offering superior talent, stable governance, and a robust high-tech ecosystem."
Reshaping Talent Markets and Compensation
As GCCs ascend the value chain, their growing influence is reverberating throughout India's labour market. This is particularly evident in how talent is valued and compensated. The move toward high-impact digital and engineering roles is reshaping salary benchmarks, career trajectories, and hiring expectations.
High-demand skills command significant premiums, reflecting the increasing complexity of roles anchored in India. The hiring perspective itself is changing fundamentally. "Over the last twelve months, the index has shifted toward proven capabilities compared to using credentials or previous salary as proxies for talent," Kartik Narayan observed.
This change manifests in stronger job acceptance rates, currently between 60-70%, compared to the 35-40% typical in the IT services market. Anuradha Mohanty discussed the "profound impact" GCCs are having on India's professional landscape, emphasizing their role in elevating skill standards and career opportunities.
Increasing Pressure on IT Services Firms
The rise of GCCs is altering competitive dynamics for traditional Indian IT services companies. Narayan highlighted substantial changes in hiring momentum across three key areas. Meanwhile, Mohanty characterized the relationship as shifting "from partnership to what I like to call 'co-opetition'"—a blend of cooperation and competition.
The GCC Story Continues Its Momentum
Experts view GCCs as a long-term structural pillar of India's economy rather than a temporary trend. "GCCs represent a structural pillar of India's employment and skills economy," affirmed Neeti Sharma. "With over 1,800 centres today and steady additions over the past two years, GCCs are expected to continue expanding into artificial intelligence, cloud, data, cybersecurity, and governance functions."
She also anticipates geographical spread into Tier-2 cities, where operational costs are 20–30% lower. Kartik Narayan projected strong value growth alongside this expansion. "The GCC story in India will endure for structural reasons," he stated. "In terms of value, it could grow to approximately $110 billion by 2030 from the current level around $65 billion."
He envisions India emerging as a global hub for artificial intelligence operations. "The GCC narrative itself is evolving into 'GCC as a service,' attracting more mid-market and emerging enterprises to establish hubs here due to rich talent availability and evolving business models," Narayan explained. "India contributes over 28% of global STEM talent. As long as the war for engineering talent and English-speaking ability persists, India will remain the only viable global talent moat for companies worldwide."
Anuradha Mohanty described this progression as "the GCC story moving from being a footnote to becoming a movement." She elaborated, "Over the next decade, India will emerge as one of the strongest and biggest global technology hubs. We foresee GCCs starting to own larger portions of global strategy, with global leadership mandates being driven from here."
She predicted a shift away from volume, size, and scale toward building long-term value creation and talent engines for future capabilities. "We will start seeing more customer-facing, end-to-end jobs and stronger Centers of Excellence for emerging skills," Mohanty added.
"India is transitioning from an Information Technology hub to a Deep Tech hub," she continued. "With government focus on semiconductor fabrication and National Research Foundations, GCCs in the coming decade will also concentrate on hardware, biotechnology, and material science. Here is my strong prediction: India is no longer merely where the world's work gets done; it is where the world's future is being decided. We have moved from providing capacity to scale to providing the intellectual capital to lead. The path to the global C-suite will soon run directly through India."
A Structural Shift, Not a Cyclical Trend
The evolution of Global Capability Centres indicates a structural transformation in India's economic and talent landscape. This goes beyond a temporary upswing. As global companies embed more complex, high-value work within their Indian centres, GCCs are increasingly influencing how technology is built, how talent is developed, and how global business decisions are executed from the country.
For India, the implications extend far beyond simple growth metrics. If current trends continue, GCCs will not only anchor high-value employment and domestic innovation but will also play a central role in positioning the nation as a global centre for digital, engineering, and artificial intelligence-led work throughout the next decade.
