FM vows to clear roadblocks to help GCCs grow

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday called on companies running global capability centers (GCCs) in India to expand beyond the six main hubs and tap the potential of tier‑2 and tier‑3 cities, calling it vital for maintaining India’s global leadership.

At the Confederation of Indian Industry’s GCC Summit in New Delhi, she said the government is dedicated to eliminating legislative, administrative, and tax hurdles to help the sector grow.

She highlighted GIFT City as proof that a unified regulatory and tax framework can drive GCC growth and urged the government and industry to collaborate in replicating its success in other regions to surpass even the optimistic forecasts.

GCCs in India currently add $68 billion in direct gross value (1.6% of GDP) and are expected to grow to between $150 billion and $200 billion by 2030.

The sector’s workforce has grown at an average annual rate of 11% over the past five years to 2.16 million professionals, with projections suggesting it could reach 2.8 million by decade’s end. Calling these figures “conservative,” Sitharaman urged the industry to pick up the pace.

She explained how GCCs have moved beyond transactional services into high‑value segments like engineering and R&D, now expanding 1.3 times faster than the sector’s average growth rate.

Positions like product managers, data scientists, and global function heads are now common, showing the growing sophistication of India’s GCC work.

Reflecting on India’s GCC journey, she noted it took 30 years to establish the first 1,000 centers, but the next 1,000 came up in less than 10 years after 2015.

“The speed at which GCCs expanded after 2015 is remarkable,” she said, urging companies and policymakers to keep that momentum going.

Industry leaders at the summit backed her call for regional growth and a focus on innovation.

Ajay Vij, Accenture India’s senior country managing director, said many tier‑2 and tier‑3 cities already have infrastructure “that puts the metros to shame,” and argued India needs to “shift from being a service‑oriented country to an innovation‑oriented one.”

Deloitte South Asia CEO Romal Shetty predicted that with supportive policies, the number of GCCs in India could rise to as many as 5,000 by 2030, creating up to 25 million jobs.

Sitharaman emphasized India’s built‑in advantages: the country holds 32% of global GCC talent, 28% of the world’s STEM workforce, and 23% of software engineers, while offering a 30–50% cost edge over countries like the US, UK, and Australia.

She also highlighted India’s AI leadership, citing the 2024 Stanford AI Index, which shows a 263% jump in AI talent concentration since 2016.

She added that government investments in AI centers of excellence and PhD programs are aimed at strengthening India’s role as a global AI hub.

She credited recent Union budgets with improving the business climate through clearer tax rules and governance reforms and pledged ongoing support through simplified approvals and single‑window systems.

“We will make sure we’re all in this together,” she said, urging both central and state governments to work closely with industry.