Global Capability Centers: Suggestions for a National Framework on GCCs

Global Capability Centers (GCCs) are emerging as a critical component of new value creation, driving agile innovation ecosystems and enabling enterprise resilience, technological acceleration, and global competitiveness. The GCC ecosystem in India is the fastest growing segment which is no longer in the periphery. They now host global leadership roles, serve as extended headquarters, and are becoming cognitive command hubs for breakthroughs in space, tech, smart cities, logistics, quantum, analytics, and much more.

To realise the full potential of the sector, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has published the Framework for a National Policy on GCC. It provides a strategic blueprint for structured national vision to support the expansion and elevation of India’s GCC ecosystem by focusing on policy, infrastructure, talent, and institutional coordination. 

Policy Imperatives 

India needs to have an integrated single-window system or a one-stop-shop for all GCC clearances to ease the entrance of new GCCs. Policy frameworks such as Special Economic Zones, Software Technology Parks of India, and IT policies should also be harmonized to ensure greater coherence, stability, and clarity in regulatory treatment for GCCs. 

Transfer pricing frameworks along with the taxation ecosystem in India must be aligned with global best practices to strengthen India’s competitiveness and support long-term GCC growth. 

There is also a need to align talent gaps through targeted intervention, stronger academia-industry collaboration, flexible skilling models, incentives for leadership relocation, and infrastructure to support hybrid work. Development of regional talent hubs can also help distribute opportunities, while pushing tier-2 and tier-3 regions to accelerate their economy. 

Framework for National Policy for GCCs

The framework focuses on success across four pillars: developing a robust talent pipeline, creating world- class plug & play physical and digital infrastructure, enhancing competitiveness of our cities to act as engines of growth, and fostering an ecosystem of innovation- led growth. 

• The Strategic Vision of the National Policy on GCCs focuses on scaling India’s GCC ecosystem from 1,800 to 5,000 centres, positioning itself as the global hub for high-value enterprise capabilities. It also focuses on driving employment generation of 20-25 million through GCC-led growth, including 4-5 million direct jobs. Frontier domains such as autonomous mobility, agentic, genomics-led R&D, quantum computing, and edge-AI have been recognised as having the potential to transform GCCs and their parent organisations.

• The National Policy should also strive to catalyse four critical success factors including talent, infrastructure, locational capability, and IT and startup ecosystem. Talent development mechanisms should be developed in consonance with the demand from GCCs. This includes pivoting from traditional models to a more integrated model involving joint curriculum development, shared faculty, industry-sponsored research, and pathways to guaranteed employment. Talent mobility should also be focused on as it will help GCCs operate distributed models and scale operations in cost-effective locations while maintaining access to quality in talent. 

• To retain and attract next-generation GCCs, India must offer high-quality, business-ready physical infrastructure. The policy should focus on private-sector-led development of world-class plug-and-play infrastructures for GCCs. Grade-A office spaces, high-quality utilities, efficient transport, and logistic access along with vibrant living ecosystems can create globally benchmarked work environments and promote upstream movement of GCC operations in India. Along with physical infrastructure, digital infrastructure should also be developed.

• It is also recommended that national policy may focus on reinforcing capabilities in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities to distribute the pressure from Tier 1 cities and bring locational equal equity. This will also recognize the untapped potential of these cities for the next wave of growth of GCCs in India.

Way Forward 

India’s growth story is majorly dependent on how well the growth of GCC is aligned with national missions, whether it is digital transformation, sustainability, manufacturing, or innovation. Unlocking new frontiers of opportunity by regional expansion, deepening research linkages, and fostering enterprise-level agility is also crucial for this growth. With active participation from all stakeholders, India can forge a future where it shifts from capability to leadership, from national strength to global impact and GCCs can become a fulcrum in the axis of global transformation and economy.