GCCs Emerging as a Big Answer to Labour Migration

While the world is staring at geopolitical tensions, trade wars, and increasing anti-migration rhetoric in developed economies, GCCs are emerging as an answer to issues on labour migration as a result of offshoring, which is bound to happen, says Labour Secretary SUMITA DAWRA in an interview with Shiva Rajora and Shreya Nandi in New Delhi. GCCs are emerging as an alternative to labour mobility in new-age sectors such as AI, finance, electric vehicles, and renewables, says Dawra, who is set to retire by the end of this month. Edited excerpts.

- SUMITA DAWRA

Increasing geopolitical tensions, anti-migration rhetoric in developed countries, and tariff wars are making the world protectionist. Do you see this affecting the demand for Indian workers abroad and their mobility being affected?

There is labour scarcity in many developed countries like Australia, Germany, Finland, and Japan. Labour scarcity is also present in West Asia, which has traditionally employed a lot of Indian workers. Sectors like information technology (IT), engineering, and green jobs are leading the trend. So global capability centres (GCCs) are emerging as an answer to issues around labour migration because such rhetoric would lead to the offshoring of certain aspects, especially in sectors like IT, knowledge processing, finance, and the services sector. India has more than 1,700 GCCs, and that is poised to increase to more than 2,400 by 2030. If there is labour shortage, the companies will offshore that work. And these GCCs are what I see as an alternative to labour mobility.