Sitharaman urges India to move beyond GCC hub status, target 5,000 centres by 2030

New Delhi: India aims to move beyond its dominance in hosting global capability centres (GCCs) and become a hub for next-generation technologies, products and enterprises, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday, promising policy support to help industry achieve the goal.

The government recognises that the next phase of GCC growth requires an "enabling policy ecosystem" that reduces friction, improves certainty and encourages long-term investment, she said at a Confederation of Indian Industry event.

India already hosts about half of the world's GCCs. On average, one new GCC is now being set up every day, compared with one a week in 2024, Sitharaman said.


So, now is the time to move beyond scale and ensure that over the next decade, an increasing share of the world's ideas, patents, products, algorithms, platforms and enterprise capabilities are conceived, engineered and led from this country, Sitharaman said.

She said the latest budget had introduced several measures to strengthen the GCC ecosystem.

Five-pronged strategy

Calling on industry to target 5,000 GCCs by 2030 from about 2,100 now, Sitharaman outlined a five-point strategy.

First, companies should move up the value chain by creating intellectual property, leading frontier research, developing artificial intelligence applications, owning product architecture and driving global innovation.

Second, they should deepen engagement with universities and startups to ensure seamless movement of innovation from laboratories to markets.

Third, the GCC ecosystem should expand into tier-2 and tier-3 cities, which are emerging as talent and infrastructure hubs.

Fourth, industry should work closely with state governments, local administrations and communities to prepare them for the next wave of GCC investments.

Finally, it should strengthen partnerships with governments with regular feedback on policy, processes, talent and infrastructure.