As of mid-2025, India hosts more than 1,700 Global Capability Centres — captive offshore units established by multinational companies for technology, analytics, finance, and product functions. They collectively employ over 1.6 million people and generate an estimated $46 billion in annual revenue. The number of new GCCs being established in India has accelerated every year since 2020.
What's driving this? And what does it mean for companies that haven't yet established an India presence?
What Is a GCC?
A Global Capability Centre is a wholly-owned subsidiary of a multinational that performs substantive work for the parent — not just back-office or support, but engineering, product, data science, and increasingly, AI/ML. The key distinction from outsourcing: the employees are on the parent company's payroll (or a captive EOR), they work exclusively on parent company products, and the intellectual property they create belongs to the parent.
Earlier known as "captive units" or "shared services centres," the rebranding to GCC reflects a shift in how these units are structured — from cost centres to strategic capability builders.
What's Driving the Boom
Three structural factors have combined to make India the destination for capability-building:
- Engineering talent depth: India graduates 1.5 million engineers annually. Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai have mature tech ecosystems with deep pools of ML engineers, full-stack developers, product managers, and data scientists with 5–15 years of experience at global companies.
- Cost advantage that holds at senior levels: A principal engineer in Bangalore costs 30–40% of an equivalent in San Francisco or London, even accounting for rapidly rising India salaries. The cost advantage narrows at very senior levels but remains meaningful through engineering leadership.
- AI-driven demand acceleration: AI/ML work requires large, skilled teams iterating quickly. India's talent pool in these areas — particularly at IITs, IISc, and major tech companies — is one of the deepest in the world. The AI boom has created demand for India capability that no other market can absorb at comparable scale and cost.
Fastest-Growing Sectors
Technology companies lead GCC establishment by volume, but the fastest growth in 2024–2025 has been in banking and financial services (BFSI), healthcare technology, and retail/e-commerce. Every major global bank now has an India engineering centre. The top five US health insurers all have India analytics and technology teams.
EOR as a GCC Entry Strategy
A common path we see: a company hires 3–8 engineers via EOR to test the India talent market and build a working team. 18 months later, with proof of concept established and a team that works, they set up a private limited company and transition those employees to a captive entity. EOR functions as the low-commitment first step in a GCC establishment journey.
Key GCC numbers (2025)
- 1,700+ GCCs operating in India
- 1.6 million+ employees across all GCCs
- $46 billion estimated annual revenue
- Bangalore hosts ~40% of all GCCs; Hyderabad and Pune are the next largest hubs