Indian Global Capability Centres

( GCCs) have evolved from cost-saving back offices into engines of innovation. Nitin Chandel, GVP and India Country Manager, UKG, says to sustain this momentum, true product ownership is now essential for unlocking talent, accelerating innovation and shaping global business outcomes. n 1985, when US-based Texas

Instruments opened a modest R & D outpost in Bangalore, few could have imagined that it was planting the seed for a revolution in the way multinational companies operate in India. What began as a cautious experiment in cost-saving and leveraging India locations and talent for routine IT and back-office tasks has since morphed into a phenomenon that is not just supporting the global operations but is shaping it.

Today, Global Capability Centres( GCCs) in India are no longer the‘ back office of the world’; they are the nerve centers of innovation. Walk into any gleaming tech park in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Pune or Chennai and you’ ll find teams not just keep the operations going but designing products, harnessing AI and steering Digital Transformation for some of the world’ s largest companies.

In the last decade, Indian GCCs have transformed into an extended arm of their

HQs. Global firms are no longer here just to save money; they are here because of the talent pool that can help innovate and shape their future.

And the numbers tell their own tale. Today, India is home to over 1,700 GCCs employing more than 1.9 million people. The sector, valued at US $ 64.6 billion in FY2024, is projected to swell to as much as US $ 105 billion by 2030, according to NASSCOM and Zinnov. The explosive growth validates one thing above all: global corporations are increasingly seeing India as a center of innovation.

Evolution from back-office to innovation hubs

GCCs have become the talk of the town in both mainstream media and across the industry. The story has moved far beyond cost arbitrage – today, GCCs are seen as true engines of innovation. And nowhere else in the world has their transformation been as rapid and remarkable as in India.

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