From 700 facilities in 2010 to 1,580 in FY2023, India-based global capability centres (GCCs) now employ more than 1.66 million skilled professionals, according to the latest Nasscom-KPMG estimates. With almost one new centre being set up every fortnight, the number of GCCs — also known as global in-house centres or captives (GICs) — is expected to cross 1900 by 2025 and 2,400 by 2030. For GCCs, talent while the ‘number one’ opportunity is also a risk that they are aware of; they are building a large talent pool with emerging tech skills, in addition to deploying innovative workforce strategies to hire, build and scale their manpower.
Also, companies are looking beyond tech hubs like Bengaluru and Hyderabad to set up their GCCs, in order to move closer to where the talent is. About 150 of them are located in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, such as Ahmedabad, Mysuru, Vadodara, Nashik, Tirunelveli, Bhubaneswar, and Coimbatore.
In April this year, Lubrizol, a global leader in specialty chemicals opened its GCC in Pune as a hub to accelerate its growth in the region. More than 200 regional employees, representing functions including engineering, supply chain, technology, finance, are expected to be added to the site over the next year. “GCCs have transformed from IT services hubs and traditional delivery centres to capability hubs that provide high-value services. They are increasingly focusing on R&D, engineering and ESG. A key trend is that organisations now view GCCs not as offshore centres, but as strategic centres essential for their success,” said Abhishek Jain, India GCC Leader, Lubrizol.
“We see great potential in India — and in Pune in particular,” said Soumya Seetharam, senior VP and chief digital and information officer at Corning, the US-based specialty glass firm that set up its GCC in Pune last month. “We’re seeking to hire top talent to support our technologies, while giving them opportunities to grow in their roles and careers.” The new centre will create about 100 new jobs over the next two years and enhance the company’s operations in technology space, specifically in supply chain, data, cyber, and other digital areas.
“Today, Bengaluru continues to have the lion’s share of the GCCs in the country, with the NCR region, Hyderabad and Pune all being almost equally sought after destinations for setting up GCCs,” said Shalini Pillay, India Leader — Global Capability Centre, KPMG in India.
According to her, while talent availability is the top criteria, the choice of location for a global company also includes a more granular assessment of talent in niche tech areas, proximity of the vendor and the startup ecosystem.
“To attract top talent, more than 55% of GCCs initially concentrated in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, but this has eventually led to high attrition too. It makes sense, therefore, to make inroads into tier 2 and 3 cities.” said Binu Jacob, MD & CEO, Experion Technologies, hard selling Kerala as a viable destination for the next phase of GCC expansion.
According to Pillay, as GCCs in India are moving up the value chain, there is a growing demand for high value digital skills in areas such as GenAI, AI/ML, data analytics, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and robotics process automation (RPA).
“GCCs are leveraging innovative workforce strategy models, such as hire-build-scale, borrow- augment & co-create, to achieve near, medium, as well as long-term goals. The focus is on both talent demand forecasting and building a robust talent pipeline. The government has also initiated measures to build a large talent pool with emerging technology skills,” she added.
“GCCs are increasingly focusing on complex areas such as research & development, engineering and ESG.”
Abhishek Jain, India GCC Leader, Lubrizol
“There is an emerging interest in tier-2 cities, as one moves closer to where the talent is”
Shalini Pillay, India GCC Leader, KPMG India