Global Capability Centres (GCCs)

A Global Capability Centre (GCC) is an office that a foreign company sets up in another country and runs itself, to do work for its own global business. For example, a big American bank may open a centre in Bengaluru where Indian engineers build its software, check its accounts or analyse its data. The centre is fully owned by the parent company. It does not serve outside customers. India hosts more GCCs than any other country.

Why do companies set up GCCs?

A global company has two choices for getting work done abroad. It can hire an outside IT firm (outsourcing), or it can build its own team (a GCC). With a GCC, the company keeps full control over its data, its secrets and the quality of work. It also gets skilled workers at a lower cost than in its home country. Think of it like a family that, instead of ordering food from a hotel every day, sets up its own kitchen with its own cook.

Where did the idea come from?

India's GCC story is commonly traced to 1985, when Texas Instruments, an American chip company, set up a software design centre in Bengaluru. It even used a satellite link to send work back to the US, which was rare at the time. Over the next decades, banks, carmakers, retailers and tech firms followed. The names changed over time:

• In the 1990s and 2000s they were called captive centres or Global In-house Centres (GICs). They mostly did back-office jobs like payroll, call centres and simple coding.
• Since around 2020, the name Global Capability Centres became standard. This reflects that they now do high-value work such as research, product design, AI and cybersecurity, not just back-office jobs.

How does a GCC work?

1. The parent company registers an Indian subsidiary or branch.
2. It hires Indian engineers, analysts and managers directly as its own employees.
3. The Indian team works on projects for the parent's offices across the world.
4. The parent pays the Indian unit for this work, usually at cost plus a markup. This payment counts as an export of services for India.

Key facts and numbers

Industry body Nasscom and research firm Zinnov track GCCs in India.

• In FY2024, India had about 1,700 GCCs employing about 1.9 million people, with about $64.6 billion in revenue.
• As of FY2026 (report of May 2026), India had about 2,117 GCCs across about 3,728 units, employing around 2.36 million people, with revenue of about $98.4 billion.
• A "unit" is a single centre or office. One GCC can have several units in different cities.
• Most GCCs are in big cities: Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai. Karnataka alone hosts more than 500 GCCs.

India's position and policy support

In the Union Budget 2025-26, the government announced a national framework to guide states in promoting GCCs in emerging tier-2 cities (smaller cities like Indore, Coimbatore or Kochi). As of late 2025 this framework was still being drafted. Many states have their own GCC policies with incentives such as land, rent and salary support. For example, Madhya Pradesh's GCC Policy 2025 is aimed at tier-2 cities, and Karnataka, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and others also offer GCC incentives. GCCs matter for India because they bring foreign investment, create skilled jobs and boost services exports.

Commonly confused concepts

• GCC vs IT outsourcing: In outsourcing, a company pays an outside firm (like an Indian IT services company) to do the work. In a GCC, the company does the work itself through its own employees.
• GCC vs GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council): The same letters also stand for the Gulf Cooperation Council, a group of six Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman). Read the context to know which one is meant.
• GCC vs Special Economic Zone (SEZ): An SEZ is a place with special tax and customs rules. A GCC is a type of business unit. A GCC may or may not be located inside an SEZ.
• GCC vs Global In-house Centre (GIC): These mean the same thing. GIC is the older name.

Issues, criticism and the way forward

• Concentration in big cities: Most GCC jobs are in six or seven metros, which puts pressure on housing and traffic there. The tier-2 city framework aims to spread them out.
• Skills gap: GCCs increasingly want AI, cloud and cybersecurity skills. Experts say colleges must update courses and companies must invest in training.
• Infrastructure: Smaller cities often lack good office space, airports and reliable power and internet.
• Global risks: Changes in rules abroad, such as higher US work-visa fees or limits on sending work offshore, can affect GCC growth. Some see this as pushing more work to India; others see a risk of policy shocks.
• Way forward: Industry groups suggest a single-window approval system, clear rules on data protection, better city infrastructure and stronger links between GCCs and Indian startups and universities.

Concepts to Know

• Subsidiary: A company owned and controlled by another company, called the parent.
• Export of services: When people in India do work (like software or accounting) and are paid by someone abroad. It brings foreign money into India just like selling goods abroad.
• Tier-2 city: A mid-sized city, smaller than big metros like Mumbai or Delhi, but with growing industry and population.
• Nasscom: The National Association of Software and Service Companies, the industry body of India's IT and technology sector.
• Cost-plus markup: A pricing method where the parent pays the Indian unit its full cost plus a fixed extra percentage as profit.