Govt to give best of attention to promote GCCs: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Business Standard

2 days ago

The government would back the development of India's Global Capability Centres (GCCs) whether it was through taxation, legislative support or state administration, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday.
Speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry's GCC Business Summit, the FM said, 'There's a lot of work to do. Equally, there is great opportunity for us. So together, with all heads put together, we'll be able to get some concrete steps on which I assure you the best of attention will be given by the Government of India.'
Stressing that India should not lose the advantage it has, Sitharaman said that while taxation was one issue being faced by GCCs, there was a need to lubricate the entire administrative and governing mechanism top down to make sure that the advantages are there for everyone to capture across the country.
Sitharaman in her Budget 2025 had announced that a national framework would be formulated as guidance to states for promoting GCCs in emerging tier 2 cities. 'This will suggest 16 measures for enhancing availability of talent and infrastructure, building bye-law reforms, and mechanisms for collaboration with industry,' the FM had said in her Budget speech.
The FM said that some work had been done on advance pricing and tax-related rulings in the last Budget.
Highlighting that the set-up rate of engineering, research and development GCCs had been 1.3 times faster than the overall GCC set-up rate over the last five years, Sitharaman said there was a clear shift towards high value-added work in India.
'India's unique strength lies in its immense talent pool, accounting for 28 per cent of the global Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce and 23 per cent of the global software engineering talent,' the FM said, stressing that over 32 per cent of global GCC talent is currently based in India.
Sitharaman also said that India's talent is more cost-effective compared to other countries, costing 30–50 per cent less than the US, UK and Australia.
Global roles within India GCCs, the FM said, were expected to increase from 6,500 today to over 30,000 by 2030 through robust in-house training programmes that nurture globally ready leadership.
'Over the past decade, India's GCC ecosystem has matured significantly, moving beyond execution to become centres of strategic leadership and transformation. Many GCCs now house high-end roles, including product managers, architects, data scientists and global function heads,' the FM said.
Sitharaman highlighted that on average, one new GCC per week was set up in the year 2024, with approximately 50 per cent of Fortune 500 companies establishing their GCCs in India.