“Capability to Global Leadership” to define the next decade of GCCs growth
- Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs at CII GCC summit.
India has seen a remarkable expansion of India’s GCC footprint over the past year. When the industry and government met at the inaugural GCC summit organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in 2025, India hosted about 1,800 GCCs; that number has now crossed 2,100, with “on average about one GCC every day”, highlighted Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Hon’ble Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Government of India. In a year marked by significant global headwinds – this pace of expansion, reinforces confidence by global enterprises in India’s talent base, innovation ecosystem and policy predictability. Looking ahead, the challenge before India is now to transition from capability to leadership and become indispensable in the world’s knowledge economy.
Addressing the Second National GCC Business Summit in New Delhi, organized by the CII, the Hon’ble Finance Minister described India’s GCC journey as symbolic of evolution from scale to strategic leadership. Underscoring that global enterprises no longer choose locations based on cost alone, she stressed that “India’s value proposition has evolved from cost efficiency to capability leadership”. “The question is no longer whether India can host global capability centers. We have answered that decisively. The real question now is whether India can become the country from which global enterprises create their most valuable capabilities, develop frontier technologies, and shape global business strategies”, underlined the Minister.
Talking about the imperative for the next few years, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman said that India needs to now stay ahead of the curve amid an environment where the pace of change is unprecedented. Elucidating on the collaboration between the industry and government, she said that incentive alone does not determine competitiveness; developing a facilitative ecosystem remains critical.
The Finance Minister noted that industry’s partnership had helped shape the very policy architecture on which the sector rests today. She congratulated CII for its contribution in drafting national and state level GCCs frameworks. This collaborative approach enables a feedback mechanism which helps the government to continuously refine its policy framework, she said.
Reaffirming the government’s commitment to this sector, the Hon’ble Finance Minister recalled that GCCs were explicitly recognized in the last two years’ Union Budget with the announcement of a National Framework to guide States in promoting GCCs, especially in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, expansion of Transfer Pricing Safe Harbour threshold, reduction in Advance Pricing Agreements (APA) timelines, 5 Universities Townships, City Economic Regions and Urban Challenge Fund. “These measures are designed to reduce complexity, improve policy predictability, and enable enterprises to focus more on innovation, research, and value creation,” she said.
Looking ahead, the Hon’ble Finance Minister proposed a six-point agenda for GCC leaders – 1) To continue to move up the value chain, 2) Deepen engagement with knowledge institutions, 3) Expand into emerging cities, 4) Engage more with state government and city administrations, 5) Act as “ambassadors for India” and 6) Strengthen partnership with the government.
Earlier during the session, a report back of the interventions required to strengthen India's position as the world's leading destination for Global Capability Centers were presented by Mr Gunjan Samtani, Chair, CII Taskforce on GCCs, and Mr Romal Shetty, Co – Chair, CII Taskforce on GCCs. An actionable three-point roadmap suggested to the government included infrastructure in terms of investment zones purpose-built for GCCs, further changes in the policy framework especially a more simplified track for nano and small GCCs and strengthening of the Ease of Doing Business to cover the GCC Lifecycle. For the industry, the key next steps include positioning India as a R&D and AI development hub for GCCs, co-investing in startups and building physical AI expertise.
Mr R Dinesh, Past President, CII and Chair of the session expressed gratitude to the Hon’ble Finance Minister for her leadership and for according GCCs a central place in India’s economic vision. He reaffirmed CII’s commitment to work closely with the government in advancing the shared goal of making India the preferred destination for global capabilities.
New Delhi
09 July 2026