
SAP, Intel, Google, IBM bet big on India as strategic base; GCCs shift from East Europe amid cost, talent squeeze
HYDERABAD: Be it steel giant ArcelorMittal, beer maker Heineken, BFSI giants Deutsche Bank or UBS, or even tech giants Google, IBM and SAP, among others, - they are all moving their global capability centres, in part or full, from Eastern Europe to India.
UBS has already consolidated some of its tech operations from Eastern Europe into centres in Pune and Hyderabad. Deutsche Bank, on the other hand, is relocating risk and compliance work from Romania to Bengaluru and aims to scale its India headcount to over 10,000 by 2026, sources in the GCC enablement ecosystem said.
You Can Also Check:
Hyderabad AQI
|
Weather in Hyderabad
|
Bank Holidays in Hyderabad
|
Public Holidays in Hyderabad
"MNCs that previously nearshored to Poland and other Eastern European countries like Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Romania are now hitting a dead end due to the diminishing cost arbitrage on account of escalating operational costs and limited scalability due to talent saturation," JoulesToWatts founder & CEO Priti Sawant says.
SAP, Intel, Google & IBM: Major firms eye India as strategic base
SAP, which earlier operated out of Poland and the Czech Republic, has stepped up hiring in Bengaluru and Gurgaon, even as Wells Fargo is building out its AI and risk teams in Hyderabad. Intel too has beefed up its India engineering centres, pulling back slightly in Eastern Europe, they added.
Google too is moving software engineering (Android, Chrome, and Cloud) as well as QA capabilities from its Krakow engineering hub in Poland, even as IBM is going for a strategic relocation of cloud services roles to India from its Warsaw hub, according to GCC enabler JoulesToWatts Business Solutions (J2W).
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
American Investor Warren Buffett Recommends: 5 Books For Turning Your Life Around
Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List
Undo
ArcelorMittal has set up a GCC in Hyderabad to focus on digital, analytics & global support for HR, IT and finance, even as companies like Bosch, PepsiCo and BT Group are learnt to be deepening their India presence while streamlining their cost-efficient operations in Europe.
Neeti Sharma, CEO, TeamLease Digital, says over the last 12-18 months, there has been a clear rise in GCCs shifting operations from Eastern Europe or expanding their presence in India as a strategic hedge.
"It's largely driven by a mix of geopolitical instability in Europe due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, rising costs in countries like Poland and Romania, and India's growing strength as a mature, scalable destination for global delivery and innovation," she says.
Already, 15-20% GCCs with a base in Eastern Europe are learnt to be actively exploring India as a long-term alternative. Estimates provided by GCC enablers suggest that over the next 2-3 years, over 500 new GCC setups or major expansions driven from Eastern Europe could happen here, as companies realign their global delivery strategies and double down on India for talent and innovation.
According to J2W, Eastern Europe block houses over 1,500 GCCs employing 0.5 million techies and generating $42.3 billion in revenue. However, ANSR says the region houses about 800 GCCs and GBS including over 420 in Poland, more than 140 in Romania, over 105 in Czech Republic and over 110 in Hungary.
50% BENEFIT IN SALARIES
"If you take average salaries in Eastern Europe vs India, you are looking at a 50% benefit. So there is definitely a cost arbitrage by coming here," says Rohan Lobo, partner, Deloitte India.
While pointing out that though Eastern European GCCs offer language capabilities in all European languages, Lalit Ahuja, founder & CEO, ANSR, says because of the much smaller talent pool, the demand-supply dynamics has sent talent costs soaring there.
"India offers talent that takes accountability, understands the business and is culturally adaptable." adds Ahuja. "India offers a better cost-to-skill ratio, especially in areas like AI, analytics, cybersecurity, and financial services. There's also greater flexibility and scale when it comes to hiring digital and engineering talent," adds Sharma. "India also offers the entire gamut from product engineering, R&D, IT operations, business process operations, or even HR and finance functions," Lobo adds.
"As long as we keep the hustle culture going, we will always be in demand," adds Sawant.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Hans India
7 minutes ago
- Hans India
Google Failed to Notify 10 Million Users of Imminent Turkish Quake
Google earthquake alert failure up to 35 seconds warning to 10 million not warned within 98 miles (160km) of the epicenter to find safety, was not sent. Only 469 users were sent the much lower-level 'Take Action' warning during the first 7.8 magnitude earthquake. 'We had approximately 500,000 users that were sent a 'Be Aware' alert,' a Google spokesperson told the BBC. The notification is a 'low priority' warning for light tremors that is designed not to be disruptive to users. The company's previous statement to the BBC said the system had 'performed well.' 'Development of these improvements was informed by our experience with the Turkey earthquake 2025,' the Google spokesperson added. How it works Google's warning system, which is called Android Earthquake Alerts (AEA), can detect shaking using data from the large numbers of mobile phones with its Android operating system. Earthquake warning systems are possible because seismic waves move at a moderate speed through the earth, allowing for a warning before the shaking arrives. Google's most serious warning is called 'Take Action'. It turns on a loud alarm on a user's phone (even if the device is on 'Do Not Disturb'), and covers their screen. AEA also issues a less urgent 'Be Aware' alert that is meant to let users know there's a possibility of light shaking. This alert doesn't silence a phone's 'Do Not Disturb' mode. Google's emergency alert system was particularly important for Turkey's quake due to the catastrophic shaking and the fact the first earthquake struck at 04: 17, when many users are likely to have been asleep. 'Limitations' Google researchers wrote in the journal Turkey seismic activity about what went wrong, listing 'limitations to the detection algorithms' as the cause. The system estimated shaking for the first quake to be between 4.5 and 4.9 on the moment magnitude scale (MMS) when it was actually 7.8. AEA also underestimated the second large earthquake that day but this time did send Take Action alerts to 8,158 phones and Be Aware alerts to just under four million users.


Time of India
34 minutes ago
- Time of India
Lucrative deals, changing preferences: What Aadi fest entails in 2025
This Aadi season, popular marketplaces in Tamil Nadu are buzzing with activity. Shoppers, too, are seizing massive discounts across textiles, jewellery, electronics, and home appliances fronts in the fourth month of the Tamil calendar. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Traditionally observed as a sacred time for rituals and divine offerings, Aadi has undeniably evolved into a high-octane shopping season over time, with retailers offering lucrative deals to keep consumer demand at a steady high during the month. Retailers across Chennai, from T Nagar and Pondy Bazaar to Parry's Corner and Sowcarpet, tell us that they are expecting a 20– 30% surge in footfall compared to last year, driven by attractive offers, EMI options, and festivalexclusive combo deals. 'People may cut costs elsewhere, but not on gold' 'Lightweight and antique-style jewellery are in demand and popular, especially among young brides. This year, we've also introduced virtual try-ons and doorstep delivery for elderly customers. Sales are 18% higher than last year so far. The craze for gold during Aadi is emotional as much as financial — it's seen as an auspicious investment,' informs Akbar Ali, owner of a jewellery store in Parry's Corner. 'Aadi is like Deepavali for the home appliances business' "Aadi is no longer just a cultural event; it's a full-fledged consumer festival. For us, it's like Deepavali. People wait for this season to upgrade or replace home appliances. This year, discounts have gone up to 40%, and smart kitchen gadgets are trending big," states N Karthikeyan, sales manager at a home appliances store in T Nagar. 'We expect a 35% growth in sales this Aadi season' "Aadi always brings in a wave of shoppers, but this year, we are expecting at least 35% more sales than in 2024. The season has begun well with strong demand for bridal saris, everyday cottons, and men's festive shirts. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now There's been a clear uptick in young shoppers, especially working women who prefer readymade options. Even NRIs visiting India for July-August weddings are stopping by," says Ranendran Pillai, co-owner of a textile store in Sowcarpet. What's hot this Aadi festive: Electronics and appliances: Air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, mixer grinders, robot vacuum cleaners and Android TVs are trending Textiles: Sarees, cotton kurtis , wedding silks, and readymade wear continue to dominate Jewellery: Lightweight gold, bridal sets, and festive bangles remain customer favourites Consumer behaviour: Customers, especially young couples and homemakers, are increasingly opting for no-cost EMIs, exchange offers, and combo packs
&w=3840&q=100)

Business Standard
37 minutes ago
- Business Standard
AI agents are here: What they are capable of and where things can go wrong
We are entering the third phase of generative AI. First came the chatbots, followed by the assistants. Now we are beginning to see agents: systems that aspire to greater autonomy and can work in 'teams' or use tools to accomplish complex tasks. The latest hot product is OpenAI's ChatGPT agent. This combines two pre-existing products (Operator and Deep Research) into a single more powerful system which, according to the developer, 'thinks and acts'. These new systems represent a step up from earlier AI tools. Knowing how they work and what they can do – as well as their drawbacks and risks – is rapidly becoming essential. From chatbots to agents ChatGPT launched the chatbot era in November 2022, but despite its huge popularity the conversational interface limited what could be done with the technology. Enter the AI assistant, or copilot. These are systems built on top of the same large language models that power generative AI chatbots, only now designed to carry out tasks with human instruction and supervision. Agents are another step up. They are intended to pursue goals (rather than just complete tasks) with varying degrees of autonomy, supported by more advanced capabilities such as reasoning and memory. Multiple AI agent systems may be able to work together, communicating with each other to plan, schedule, decide and coordinate to solve complex problems. Agents are also 'tool users' as they can also call on software tools for specialised tasks – things such as web browsers, spreadsheets, payment systems and more. A year of rapid development Agentic AI has felt imminent since late last year. A big moment came last October, when Anthropic gave its Claude chatbot the ability to interact with a computer in much the same way a human does. This system could search multiple data sources, find relevant information and submit online forms. Other AI developers were quick to follow. OpenAI released a web browsing agent named Operator, Microsoft announced Copilot agents, and we saw the launch of Google's Vertex AI and Meta's Llama agents. Earlier this year, the Chinese startup Monica demonstrated its Manus AI agent buying real estate and converting lecture recordings into summary notes. Another Chinese startup, Genspark, released a search engine agent that returns a single-page overview (similar to what Google does now) with embedded links to online tasks such as finding the best shopping deals. Another startup, Cluely, offers a somewhat unhinged 'cheat at anything' agent that has gained attention but is yet to deliver meaningful results. Not all agents are made for general-purpose activity. Some are specialised for particular areas. Coding and software engineering are at the vanguard here, with Microsoft's Copilot coding agent and OpenAI's Codex among the frontrunners. These agents can independently write, evaluate and commit code, while also assessing human-written code for errors and performance lags. Search, summarisation and more One core strength of generative AI models is search and summarisation. Agents can use this to carry out research tasks that might take a human expert days to complete. OpenAI's Deep Research tackles complex tasks using multi-step online research. Google's AI 'co-scientist' is a more sophisticated multi-agent system that aims to help scientists generate new ideas and research proposals. Agents can do more – and get more wrong Despite the hype, AI agents come loaded with caveats. Both Anthropic and OpenAI, for example, prescribe active human supervision to minimise errors and risks. OpenAI also says its ChatGPT agent is 'high risk' due to potential for assisting in the creation of biological and chemical weapons. However, the company has not published the data behind this claim so it is difficult to judge. But the kind of risks agents may pose in real-world situations are shown by Anthropic's Project Vend. Vend assigned an AI agent to run a staff vending machine as a small business – and the project disintegrated into hilarious yet shocking hallucinations and a fridge full of tungsten cubes instead of food. In another cautionary tale, a coding agent deleted a developer's entire database, later saying it had 'panicked'. Agents in the office Nevertheless, agents are already finding practical applications. In 2024, Telstra heavily deployed Microsoft copilot subscriptions. The company says AI-generated meeting summaries and content drafts save staff an average of 1–2 hours per week. Many large enterprises are pursuing similar strategies. Smaller companies too are experimenting with agents, such as Canberra-based construction firm Geocon's use of an interactive AI agent to manage defects in its apartment developments. Human and other costs At present, the main risk from agents is technological displacement. As agents improve, they may replace human workers across many sectors and types of work. At the same time, agent use may also accelerate the decline of entry-level white-collar jobs. People who use AI agents are also at risk. They may rely too much on the AI, offloading important cognitive tasks. And without proper supervision and guardrails, hallucinations, cyberattacks and compounding errors can very quickly derail an agent from its task and goals into causing harm, loss and injury. The true costs are also unclear. All generative AI systems use a lot of energy, which will in turn affect the price of using agents – especially for more complex tasks. Learn about agents – and build your own Despite these ongoing concerns, we can expect AI agents will become more capable and more present in our workplaces and daily lives. It's not a bad idea to start using (and perhaps building) agents yourself, and understanding their strengths, risks and limitations. For the average user, agents are most accessible through Microsoft copilot studio. This comes with inbuilt safeguards, governance and an agent store for common tasks. For the more ambitious, you can build your own AI agent with just five lines of code using the Langchain framework.