With India emerging as the virtual world capital for Global Capability Centres (GCC) driven by its extraordinary pool of quality digital talent, multinational companies are drawn to it unable to resist a magnetic pull paving the way for a burgeoning Job market for Indians and foreigners. So no sweat if the IT sector in India has significantly cut down on new recruitment since 2023-24. GCCs are expected to open new doors for them.
But wait a minute, observes IT visionary and former CMD, Cognizant India, Ramkumar Ramamoorthy not wanting to go gaga over the GCC dimension. “GCCs are not a new phenomenon in India having been around for more than three decades and evolving over the years. In the 1980s and nineties, there was advent of call centre operations and back office work, besides in semi-conductors, software and finance companies. But now there are multiple distinct waves of GCCs coming in moving up the value chain into business processes and operations of software for their parent companies,” he says.
“While some countries in South America and Eastern Europe — such as Poland, Hungary, Romania Brazil, Mexico and Costa Rica — compete with India for GCCs with distinct requirements, they do not have the talent at scale that India prides itself in,” says former CMD, Cognizant India, Ramkumar Ramamoorthy
In a chat with The Hindu, Mr. Ramamoorthy, who is partner of a consultancy firm helping companies re-imagine their business potential, perceived two reasons for the sudden explosion of GCCs. “Up until the digital revolution started, technology was seen as an enabler of business. But with the digital revolution, technology is ‘the’ business,” he observed. In many cases the underlying business platform of a company today is its tech platform. “So given this structural shift, globally companies want to ‘own’ this core transformative capability rather than merely ‘lease’ it,” he reckons.
Secondly, no progressive global business today can afford to not have access to digital capabilities at scale. “With no other country having the digital talent and capabilities on a scale that India has, many of them are making a beeline for India,” he believes. This has resulted in over 1,800 global companies establish their GCCs in India and directly employing over two million professionals.
Growing more effusive, he says GCCs are a great opportunity for students to build their careers as they provide high-quality, high-value jobs with global exposure. “GCCs look for talent at the intersection of technology and domain, and help students who join them grow in their disciplines of study, be it electronics, biotechnology, automotive or environmental engineering”.
For example, for pharma GCCs like AstraZeneca and Roche, biotech and bioinformatics students would be the natural preference just like for Ford, Caterpillar and Renault-Nissan, it would be students specialized in mechanical, automotive and industrial engineering. Students in computing are preferred by every company because of the digital opportunities created by AI, IoT, Cloud and cyber security, among others.
Ramamoorthy believes there is no other country like India with such a strength of digital talent, the bulk of it in Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, NCR region and Chennai. China has a large pool of science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates, but is no match for India in terms of digital talent, to attract GCCs. Apart from India, there is notable digital talent available in South America and Eastern Europe.
Striking a sobering note, he observes that GCCs need both technology and industry capability. “All new digital solutions are at the intersecton of technology and industry domain,” he points out. Asked how budding engineers and students aspiring to work in GCCs should update, upskill and reorient themselves, he says institutions like VIT are already working on these aspects realizing the opportunities that GCCs bring to the table. VIT has gone public stating that in their recent recruitment cycle more than 50 per cent of students got placements in GCCs, which offer pay structures higher than IT companies.
On whether GCCs would be key player in India achieving the government’s declared goal of Viksit Bharat, a developed country, he said there was no doubt that GCCs had a role to drive the economic value of India, creating high quality and high value jobs and enhance intellectual property.
Key to achieving $10 trillion economy
GCCs currently employ 3.2 million Indians mostly engineers and scientists, according to a survey by Pune-based consultant Wizmatic. While more skilled Indians are expected to land jobs with GCCs, it may be premature to hazard whether the new job opportunities will in some way reverse the brain drain over the years.
The global economic slowdown and conflicts around the world would probably prompt technically qualified Indians overseas to return home. However, even though the incoming U.S. President Donald Trump has raised concerns over impending trade tariffs, his statements praising Indian contribution to the U.S. economy, have toned down his rhetoric.
Mr. Ramamoorthy says: “GCCs in India have moved beyond cost benefits to transforming businesses and driving extreme innovation. They are investing heavily in R&D, building newer products and platforms, investing in deep tech and creating intellectual property (IP). These investments and resultant large-scale employment generation are critical to India reaching its ambition of $10-trillion mark by end of the next decade.”
“GCCs have gone mainstream and are here to stay. I do not expect the changes in the political landscape to adversely impact the growth of GCCs as India is slowly but steadily becoming the technology talent powerhouse of the world. While some countries in South America and Eastern Europe — such as Poland, Hungary, Romania Brazil, Mexico and Costa Rica — compete with India for GCCs with distinct requirements, they do not have the talent at scale that India prides itself in. If anything, I expect this trend of several hundred GCCs coming to India every year to accentuate in the years to come,” he adds.
Published – January 17, 2025 09:52 pm IST
