TECH TWO: THE NEW FRONTIER

INDIA HOSTS NEARLY 50 PER CENT OF THE WORLD'S GCCs. MNCs AIM TO LEVERAGE THE COUNTRY'S ROBUST SERVICES INDUSTRY AND ABUNDANT TALENT POOL

- Sonal Khetarpal

India is slowly but surely transitioning from its old role as a digital factory yard for the world. There’s an upstream shift along the value chain to a more knowledge-based role as ideator and innovator. The new buzzword is Global Capability Centres or GCCs. Offshore hubs that deliver technology, engineering and operational support to their parent multinationals, the new functionality goes way beyond that of a technological sweatshop. Take Swiss multinational Roche’s Digital Centre of Excellence in Pune, for instance. It’s driving the biotech giant’s efforts to harness technology and data to automate processes and machines in diagnostic labs. This focus on high-value innovation from India underscores how companies are tapping into the country’s talent to power their research and development.

With several Fortune 500 companies planning to establish GCCs in India, state governments are introducing new GCC policies to attract more centres and create jobs. While Karnataka launched a GCC policy this week, Tamil Nadu is planning its own.