Why India

Draft for review: sources checked 21 Oct 2026.

This guide sets out what published sources say about India as a location for a Global Capability Centre. It does not say India is right for your company, and it makes no cost comparison it cannot source. Every figure is linked in the paragraph that states it, with the date it was true. Where we found no reliable figure, the guide says so rather than estimate one.

Start with the centres already here

The Zinnov-Nasscom GCC Landscape in India 2026 counts 2,117 GCCs operating across 3,728 units, with data as of March 2026, and reports 32% growth in the number of GCCs since FY2021. It records 506 Forbes Global 2000 companies operating a GCC in India, and puts GCC revenue at US$98.4 billion and GCC talent at 2.36 million for FY2026.

Those counts are the context for the rest of this guide: capability centres already take a large share of office leasing and are the subject of dedicated state policies, both covered below. How the base differs city by city, including competition for the same people, is covered in the Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune guides.

Look at the technology workforce, then the pipeline

Nasscom's Strategic Review 2026, first printed in February 2026, estimates India's technology industry revenue at about US$315 billion for FY2026, with exports above US$246 billion. It projects direct technology sector employment at about 6 million in FY2026, up 2.3% on the year, a net addition of 135,000 people. These are estimates for a year that had not closed when the review was printed.

The same review defines a GCC as an offshore unit set up by a multinational to perform strategic functions, drawing on knowledge-based talent, cost and operational efficiencies (Nasscom Strategic Review 2026, glossary). That is a description of why companies say they build centres, not a measurement of what they achieve.

For the pipeline, the Ministry of Education's All India Survey on Higher Education reports total enrolment in higher education of 4.50 crore (45.0 million) in 2023-24, and STEM enrolment of 1.02 crore (10.2 million) in the same year (PIB, 8 July 2026). A government factsheet drawing on the survey puts higher education out-turn, the number of students who pass out of institutions in a year, at over 1.09 crore (10.9 million) in 2023-24 (PIB factsheet, 30 August 2026).

These are national totals across all disciplines and institutions. They do not tell you how many candidates with a given skill and seniority are available in one city at your salary band. That question is answered by a hiring market study for your roles, not by a national figure.

Check office supply in the city you are considering

CBRE's India Market Monitor Q2 2026, published in July 2026, records office absorption of 24.6 million sq ft in Q2 2026 and 45.5 million sq ft in H1 2026, with GCCs taking 42% of the space absorbed in the quarter. It records project completions of 21 million sq ft in the quarter and 32 million sq ft in the half year. CBRE's release, as reported by ANI on 6 July 2026, puts the GCC share of absorption for H1 2026 at 43%.

National absorption says the market is deep; it says nothing about the building you need. Rents, vacancy and the micro-markets that matter differ city by city, and the city guides cite them separately.

Plan around one national time reference

Indian Standard Time is based on UTC with an offset of plus five hours thirty minutes and is maintained by CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, as the Department of Consumer Affairs stated when it published the draft rules in January 2025 (PIB, 27 January 2025). The government announced on 2 September 2026 that the Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2026 had been notified to make IST the common, legally recognised time reference (PIB, 2 September 2026).

How much of your working day overlaps with headquarters depends on your headquarters time zone and on whether it observes daylight saving. Work the overlap out from the offset for each team rather than from a rule of thumb, and decide early which roles need shift patterns.

Read policy as documents, not headlines

At national level, the Union Budget 2025-26 speech (para 91) announced that a national framework would be formulated as guidance to states for promoting Global Capability Centres in emerging tier 2 cities, suggesting measures on talent, infrastructure, building byelaw reforms and collaboration with industry. We have not found the framework published as a document.

The Union Budget 2026-27 speech (paras 124 to 127) proposed grouping software development, IT-enabled services, knowledge process outsourcing and contract R&D services into a single Information Technology Services category for transfer pricing safe harbour, with a common margin of 15.5%, a threshold raised from 300 crore rupees to 2,000 crore rupees, automated approval, and continuation for five years at the company's choice. The rule status is in Laws and regulation.

At state level, Karnataka's published GCC Policy 2024-2029 aims to attract 500 new GCCs, 3.5 lakh new jobs and US$50 billion of economic output in the state by 2029. Other states' documents, and which items in them are policy rather than announcement, are compared in State incentives for capability centres.

Weigh cost with your own numbers

We have not found a primary or independent published source that gives a like-for-like cost of running a capability centre in India against another location, so this guide states no cost saving. Salary benchmarks, attrition rates and wage inflation are also absent for the same reason. Build the cost case from quotes for your own roles, premises and cities, and treat any unsourced percentage you are shown as a sales claim.

Two inputs that are sourced elsewhere on GCC Vector: office rents for individual cities are in the city guides, and the tax rules that shape the intercompany price of the centre's services are in Laws and regulation and Entity structures.

Check before you rely on this

• The Zinnov-Nasscom and Nasscom figures are industry estimates using their own definitions of a GCC and of the technology industry; the FY2026 Nasscom figures are marked as estimates.
• The 43% H1 2026 share comes from a news report of CBRE's release, because CBRE's release page refused our fetcher; the 42% Q2 2026 share is read from CBRE's report itself.
• The national GCC framework announced in the Budget 2025-26 speech: we found no published framework document as of 21 Oct 2026.
• The safe harbour figures from the Budget 2026-27 speech are proposals as stated in the speech; check the notified rules before relying on them.
• No salary, attrition or cost comparison appears here by design, until a source we can cite exists.