Backroom Revolution

Availability of skilled talent pool along with competitive costs have made India a major attraction for MNCs to set up their support centres, commonly known as GCCs

-  Nandini Keshari

Aarnav (name changed on request), a graduate of Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, landed a job of a digital engineer at Texas Instruments. He enjoys the opportunity to work at a multinational company (MNC) without needing to relocate abroad.

His office, located in Bagmane Tech Park, Bengaluru, is nestled among other major companies such as Oracle, Nike, Cisco and Grant Thornton. Aarnav is one among the 2.5 million science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) graduates in the country who form an attractive talent pool for MNCs to set up their offices in India, and Texas Instruments is one among the 1,580 global capability centres (GCCs) and one of the earliest to recognise the potential of the Indian market.

GCCs are offshore centres that support a global parent company. The companies leverage specialised talent, cost arbitrage and operational efficiencies in several locations around the world to get key jobs done so that everything runs smoothly in the parent company. These centres provide essential tech services, research and development (R&D), and engineering and information technology support to their parent companies. GCCs have become a major trend in India, with their rapid expansion evident as 10 new GCCs were established in just the fourth quarter of 2023.

GCCs employ over 1.66 million people, according to GCCs in India: Building Resilience for Sustainable Growth, a report by consultants KPMG and NASSCOM, the IT industry body. The total market size of GCCs is $46 billion, and it is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 11.4%, according to a report jointly published by NASSCOM and management consultants Zinnov.

The overall share of GCCs in total IT exports from India increased from 18% in 2015 to 23% in 2023, says an HSBC global research report. At least 20% of the Forbes 2000 global companies have set up their GCCs in India till 2023.