For years, India’s GCC growth story revolved around Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune. These cities became the foundation of multinational technology and enterprise operations as global companies established engineering centres, analytics teams, enterprise support divisions, and digital transformation hubs across India.
Today, that map is beginning to change.
India’s Global Capability Center landscape is entering a broader phase of expansion as multinational corporations increasingly scale operations beyond traditional metro ecosystems into emerging regional hubs including Coimbatore, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Indore, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Vadodara, and Mysuru.
The shift reflects changing priorities around talent access, digital infrastructure, operational resilience, and long-term workforce scalability.
India’s GCC Ecosystem Continues Expanding
India has emerged as a major global hub for Global Capability Centers as multinational corporations increasingly rely on Indian operations to support software engineering, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, analytics, AI development, automation, and finance operations.
According to publicly available industry estimates for FY2026, India hosts more than 2,117 GCCs employing approximately 2.36 million professionals across sectors including banking, technology, healthcare, manufacturing, telecom, retail, logistics, financial services, and enterprise software.
The GCC sector is projected to generate approximately USD 98.4 billion in revenue during FY2026, while overall ecosystem growth since FY2021 is estimated at approximately 32%.
More than 506 Forbes Global 2000 companies now operate GCCs in India, reflecting the country’s growing role in global technology and operational infrastructure.
Industry estimates also suggest India’s GCC ecosystem now employs more than 250,000 professionals working across AI and machine learning-related functions.
Several multinational firms have continued expanding engineering, cloud, AI, and cybersecurity operations across India during FY2026 as companies scale digital infrastructure and technology capabilities.
The shift is becoming increasingly visible across enterprise hiring, operational expansion, and infrastructure investment decisions.
India’s GCC Growth Is Becoming More Distributed
For years, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Mumbai, and Delhi NCR dominated GCC expansion across India.
However, rising infrastructure pressure, talent competition, workforce concentration, and increasing operational costs across major metro regions are encouraging companies to diversify operations across multiple Indian cities.
Companies are no longer evaluating India purely through a cost lens.
Access to engineering talent, workforce scalability, operational continuity, and long-term infrastructure readiness are increasingly becoming equally important factors in expansion decisions.
Tier-2 cities are attracting increasing attention due to their large graduate talent pools, improving digital infrastructure, lower operational costs, and expanding technology networks.
Cities including Coimbatore and Kochi are steadily emerging as technology and digital services hubs, while Ahmedabad and Vadodara are gaining traction among manufacturing-linked and operational functions.
The rise of hybrid work models has also accelerated enterprise confidence around distributed workforce structures.
AI and Cybersecurity Demand Are Reshaping Expansion Strategies
The rapid growth of enterprise AI adoption is significantly influencing GCC expansion strategies across India.
Multinational corporations are increasingly expanding teams across AI engineering, machine learning operations, cybersecurity infrastructure, cloud computing, automation, platform engineering, and software development functions.
Hiring demand across AI engineering and cybersecurity functions has continued rising as enterprises expand digital infrastructure operations globally.
The expansion of AI-focused operations is also increasing demand for specialised engineering talent beyond traditional metro ecosystems.
This is one of the major reasons companies are increasingly exploring distributed multi-city operating models across India.
Multi-City Operating Models Are Becoming More Common
Many organisations are now adopting distributed operating structures instead of concentrating large workforces within a single metro city.
Under this model, leadership and strategic functions may remain in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, or Pune, while engineering, analytics, cybersecurity, and operational teams expand into Tier-2 cities.
The approach allows companies to access broader talent pools, improve operational resilience, reduce concentration risk, and scale expansion more sustainably over the long term.
The transition is gradually reshaping India’s technology and operations landscape into a more distributed network of enterprise hubs.
India GCC Expansion Landscape (FY2026)
Very High GCC Concentration
• Bengaluru
• Hyderabad
• Pune
High GCC Presence
• Chennai
• Delhi NCR / Gurgaon
• Mumbai
Emerging High-Growth GCC Hubs
• Ahmedabad
• Kochi
• Coimbatore
Emerging GCC Ecosystems
• Jaipur
• Indore
• Bhubaneswar
• Chandigarh
Infrastructure Investment Continues Expanding
Several Indian states are increasingly positioning secondary cities as destinations for technology investment, digital infrastructure expansion, and GCC growth.
Infrastructure upgrades, technology parks, skill development programmes, and digital ecosystem investments are contributing to stronger confidence across emerging regional cities.
As companies continue scaling AI, cloud, engineering, and cybersecurity operations, regional technology networks across India are expected to strengthen further over the coming years.
NR Insights
India’s GCC ecosystem is no longer expanding purely around cost efficiency.
The sector is increasingly evolving into a large-scale technology and digital operations network supporting global business infrastructure across AI, cloud, engineering, analytics, cybersecurity, and automation.
The next phase of India’s GCC expansion is expected to become increasingly distributed across multiple cities rather than concentrated within a single metro ecosystem.
Notes
FY2026 figures are derived from publicly available industry estimates, enterprise disclosures, and independent public assessments.
City positioning reflects relative GCC expansion activity and ecosystem maturity based on publicly available industry reports and enterprise announcements. It does not indicate exact GCC counts by city.
References
• NASSCOM-Zinnov GCC Landscape Report 2026
• Public enterprise disclosures and annual reports
• Reuters reporting on India GCC and enterprise technology expansion
• Publicly available infrastructure and state investment announcements
• Publicly available industry assessments related to GCC operations in India
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