Big Four battle for India’s $2-billion and growing GCC work

Mumbai: Big Four professional services firms in India are competing hard for global capability centre (GCC) work, as the segment emerges as their fastest-growing business, generating more than $2 billion (about Rs 19,000 crore) in combined revenue in FY26.

And why not, with multinational companies turning their India-based centres from cost-focused offshore operations into hubs for higher-value work from strategy and governance to product development and technology.

“GCCs have moved from being a niche opportunity to becoming one of the strongest growth drivers for professional services firms,” said Shalini Pillay, India leader - global capability centres at KPMG in India, which generated 30-35% of its overall advisory revenue from GCCs in the last fiscal.


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Rivals Deloitte India and EY India each crossed the Rs 5,000-crore mark in GCC revenue in FY26.

Deloitte’s GCC business is growing 25% annually and now accounts for 28% of its total revenue while the segment accounts for 35% of PwC’s technology consulting business—its largest service line in India.

Sanjeev Krishan, chairperson of PwC India, said it has more than 100 dedicated partners and 5,000 people in its GCC practice that grew around 35% year-on-year in FY26.

The industry expects the momentum to continue in the coming years, with some projections suggesting India could host up to 5,000 GCCs by 2030.

In FY26, 2,100-plus GCCs generated $98.4 billion in revenue in India, employing 2.36 million professionals, as they have transformed from cost-focused managed services that compete with third-party service providers in the early years of 2017–19 to their parents’ partners in long-term advice and execution.

“Companies are increasingly looking to India to build a ‘strategic twin’ that can own transformation and experimentation, rather than merely execute work handed down by headquarters,” said Rajesh Ojha, partner and GCC market segment leader at PwC India.

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The firms claim that their understanding of sectors, audit, tax, government regulations, risk, and business processes provides them an advantage when a company requires more than just technology delivery.

“The client increasingly needs more and more domain expertise,” said Prashant Choudhary, who leads financial services GCCs at Deloitte South Asia. “The combination of agentic AI, domain expertise and top talent makes the Big Four proposition compelling.”

The shift is challenging traditional outsourcing’s headcount-driven economics.

“Some of the deals we are pursuing involve taking over large operations and delivering 35% to 40% efficiency,” Choudhary said. “We are disrupting and transforming existing business while bringing significant advantages to clients.”

The Big Four offer co-managed, completely managed and build-operate-transfer models, as well as hybrid structures. They are also reshaping their business models to capture higher-value work as GCCs move beyond technology support to product development and platform building.

“An engine manufacturer doesn’t want to sell engines; it wants to sell power by the hour,” said Jaikumar Subramanian, GCC leader – diversified industries at Deloitte South Asia. “The shift access service model and end-to-end solution provider (model) are driving demand for partners with technology, talent, infrastructure and cybersecurity capabilities to deliver higher-value work.”

Intense Competition

Competition among service providers is increasing with specialist GCC operators, talent providers and real estate players also throwing their hat in the ring.

“The market opportunity remains significant, but so does the competition,” Pillay of KPMG said. “With around 150-160 participants active in the space, differentiation is becoming critical.”

To the advantage of the Big Four, GCC mandates often originate at a multinational’s headquarters, even when much of the work is performed in India. Winning them requires coordination between the local practice and the firm serving the client in its home market.

Also, artificial intelligence has opened up a new battleground. As companies move from experimenting with individual AI applications to deploying them across operations, GCCs are expected to help prepare data, redesign processes and establish governance for wider adoption.

“The Big Four must combine industry expertise with the ability to deploy AI at scale, while competing with technology services firms,” PwC’s Ojha said. “Knowledge is not sufficient anymore. How you apply AI to impact outcomes is where the advantage lies.”

Lately, GCCs have been actively seeking partners to develop tech products and platforms and that’s playing to the strengths of the Big Four’s technology and consulting practices.

“The next phase is about creating new products and platforms. To make these platforms work, you need fundamental technology, talent, infrastructure and cybersecurity. That is where the higher-value, differentiating work is coming in,” Subramanian of Deloitte said.

Firms are also seeking longer-term, strategic partnerships with multinationals, moving beyond short-term or three-year contracts. Deloitte is going to market and positioning itself as a long-term partner across the establishment, expansion and transformation of GCCs.

“We are not only playing at the level of individual offerings or solutions, but we are also the client’s lifecycle partner — helping them set up the GCC, shape the organisation, and take it through maturity uplift, transformation and innovation,” Subramanian said.

Economics, however, are becoming more challenging as the field expands.

“While GCC projects continue to attract premium billing rates, often 30-40% higher than traditional domestic engagements, pricing pressure is increasing as larger firms scale their presence,” Pillay said. “The next phase of growth will be driven by specialised expertise, innovation, and value creation rather than pricing alone.”