Telangana mulls policy for GCCs to attract more firms, make process easier
'Going forward, the Telangana government is planning to introduce a custom GCC policy,' the Chief Minister's office said, announcing that in the first six months of 2025 Hyderabad attracted as many as 27 GCCs. The city continues to attract mid-market companies as a category and US-based, European, Japanese and South Korean companies. McDonalds, Vanguard, Citizens Bank, Heineken, BarryCalebaut, DAZN and Dai-ichi are some of the firms that have established GCC this year in Hyderabad.
The CMO spoke of the potential to attract more GCCs with the proposed policy while also highlighting how the State government's emphasis on the China Plus One strategy of global firms is helping attract new players across industries. The China Plus One strategy essentially pertains to a geographical diversification global firms with manufacturing operations in China have set out on and for which they are evaluating India and a few other countries in Asia to locate the new facilities.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had been pointing out in his addresses at industries events on how the favourable, stable government policies, strong ecosystem and a legacy of development have contributed to Hyderabad's emergence as a preferred destination of companies. Hyderabad is not competing with other States but other countries, he had declared during the opening of new facilities of many companies in recent times.
Preferred by GCCs
Hyderabad has become a preferred destination for MNCs expanding their GCC operations. The city is home to more than 355 GCCs, a majority of them of US-based firms. As many as 70 new GCCs were setup in 2024 and Telangana continues to welcome more in 2025, across multiple areas, including risk management, cybersecurity, machine learning, supply chain management, cloud computing and AI/ML Research, the CMO said.
Telangana has been figuring consistently among top 3 States in Ease of Doing Business rankings in India. Some of the contributing factors for Hyderabad includes its infrastructure, skilled labour, low cost of living and favourable policies that have helped attract technology, manufacturing, financial services and pharmaceutical firms. The proposed Regional Ring Road (RRR), planned to encompass the existing Outer Ring Road (ORR), is set to expand the investment horizons of Hyderabad with greater connectivity to the international airport. The CMO said during the visit of Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to the World Economic Forum (WEF) earlier this year, the Telangana delegation met with more than 40 global corporate leaders, attracting projects entailing ₹1.78 lakh crore .
More sectoral policies
Approvals for new industrial projects are issued through a single-window clearance system, based on self-certification, in less than 15 days. In addition to the GCC policy, the State government will soon launch sectoral policies on electric vehicles, Life Sciences, AVGC and Semiconductors, the CMO said.
IT industry body Nasscom in a report last year said multiple factors are contributing to emergence of Telangana as a preferred GCC destination, including single window clearances for State registrations, licenses and approvals for new GCCs.
Sustain focus
In its recommendation, Nasscom said the State government should sustain infrastructure investment, focus on Deeptech and high-end skills development and target attracting more than 500 GCCs by 2030 by conducting global roadshows and project Telangana as Unicorn GCC Hub.
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