How do Global Capability Centers in India help Local Economies Grow?

With the establishment of GCCs in India, job creation is on a hike. There are varied opportunities provided for employment across sectors like the IT industry, finance, health, and engineering. GCCs are also paying 15-20% higher salaries than traditional IT companies to freshers in AI and ML-specific roles. This shift towards significantly lucrative jobs helps with alleviating unemployment and improving living standards for several individuals. Recently, many state governments have also announced GCC policies with financial incentives and upskilling initiatives, propelling economic growth in both tier-1 and tier-2 cities. 

For instance, Karnataka’s state government announced a draft policy to double the number of GCCs to 1,000 by 2029, creating an extra 350,000 jobs. 

GCCs do contribute significantly to India’s economic output. At these centers, revenues accumulated were $64.6 billion in 2024, with predictions of over $100 billion by 2030. With this income flow into India’s economy, the national GDP increases, thus stimulating economic activities in the nearer regions of GCCs. This includes the development of supporting industries, such as real estate, retail, and hospitality, thus triggering a multiplier effect that benefits the overall economy.

One of the aspects under which GCCs influence the outside world is through a direct economic metric. However, another area is the most important: community development and upliftment. These goals are found among a lot of GCCs that engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives for the benefit of education, health, environment, and other social welfare programs that enhance the quality of life in local communities and contribute towards their social development. 

GCCs also tend to create a culture of diversity and inclusion by giving employment opportunities to wide sections of society, further accentuating social cohesion.

A promising future for Indian GCCs can be foreseen based on their current trajectory. State governments have been creating a favorable environment for setting up and growing GCCs. Here’s how:  

• • • rental reimbursement
    • lowering patent fees
    • exempting electricity duty

These incentives were designed particularly to entice more foreign companies to set up their capability centers in India to stimulate more economic activity. 

Through their expansion from traditional metropolitan hubs into emerging cities, GCCs create continuous balanced regional growth across the major urban centers. This alleviates the historical pressure from primary cities and creates economic growth and jobs, as well as the development of infrastructure in smaller cities and towns.