GCCs IN INDIA: Exports rise 2.4x, employment 2x over six years

We have said for some time that GCCs (global capability centres) are India’s best story. But to tell that story well, it’s important to have good data.Unfortunately, not everyone in the industry agrees on how to define a GCC, or how to estimate the size. The biggest bone of contention is whether to include the IT services subsidiaries of companies like Accenture, Capgemini and Cognizant in the category. Nasscom and some others like to keep them out, even though Accenture and Cognizant in India have sometimes described themselves as GCCs. Based on its definition, Nasscom recently came out with figures for GCCs which we reported.Sandeep Panat’s consultancy Wizmatic has since two years been coming out with a different set of figures that include the foreign IT services companies (on the grounds that there is no difference in how they function and are structured compared to others). And these figures are based on an extensive collation of data of over 2,100 companies from Registrar of Companies (RoC), and of over 10,000 companies from EPFO (Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation). The former provides exports and revenue data, while the latter provides month-wise employee numbers.It’s probably the best view into how well MNCs providing IT, ITeS and ER&D services from India are doing, and what their contribution to the country is. And the numbers are remarkable. Their growth far outstrips the growth of Indian companies in this segment, and they are probably today as big or bigger than the domestic industry.Wizmatic estimates that in 2024-25, their exports grew 13% to $153 billion, and based on nine-month figures, it estimates a further growth of 6.9% to $164 billion in 2025-26. But given the sharp depreciation of the rupee in the past year, the rupee growth in the past year will be as much as 17%.The dollar growth rates in the past few years have been stunning – 17% in FY21, 25% in FY22, 19% in FY23, and 16% in FY24.Employment growth has been equally so – rising from 2.3 million in FY20, to 4.2 million now. Panat says there are about 8 million employees in the 10,590 IT & tech companies he tracks. That means the foreign companies already account for half of the total employee count.Revenue per employee has risen 24% over the same period, showing that GCCs are moving up the value chain.AI DisruptionHow does this trend line look going forward? Everyone we speak to feels AI will be a big disrupter. Fewer people will be needed as AI automates many processes. Shalini Pillay, India leader for GCCs in KPMG in India, says mature centres with 20,000-40,000 people may have to rethink their workforce models. Viswanathan K S, former VP at Nasscom and a GCC guru, says the GCC model is currently based on people, but GCCs will have to reimagine workflows and work processes to continue to be relevant to their enterprises.But most remain optimistic about employment. Many of the world’s 2,000 biggest companies are yet to establish a GCC in India, and then there are thousands of mid-sized companies. Pillay suggests a quasi-industry status for GCCs. Viswanathan urges greater ease of doing business, and an international campaign to tell the world about what India’s techies and domain experts can deliver.