Global capability centres (GCCs) in India have started to inch toward the 5% mark in terms of revenue contribution for the top IT service majors, despite being in competition with them for systems budgets of their parent companies.
The figure hovers somewhere around the sub-$10 billion mark for GCC services business for the $283 billion software services industry.
“At an industry level, about 3-4% of Indian tech industry revenue i.e., $5-6 billion, is the GCC spending in INR (Indian rupee) from India entity towards IT, staffing firms & consulting in India providing managed services, staff augmentation, digital transformation & research/ consulting services,” said Gaurav Vasu, founder and CEO of UnearthInsight, an India-based data and research platform.
Largest beneficiaries are Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, HCLTech, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, UnearthInsight suggests.
To be sure, presently, the IT outsourcing companies, currently struggling with business growth, does not explicitly disclose revenue generated from GCCs as they are reported as client relationships and not as industry vertical such as banking and financial services, manufacturing, telecom, retail, etc.
Meanwhile, mid-sized IT player Coforge has called out that the company is starting to add around 10% from GCCs, roughly $147 million to its revenues, as it doubles down on the sector that has posed to be among its rising competitors.
“Today for Coforge, about 1.5% of our revenue this year is likely to come from the setup of Greenfield GCCs (setup business). There's another 8% of our revenue that comes from working with brownfield GCCs that we've been working with for many years,” said Sudhir Singh, CEO of Coforge in the post earnings call in July.
UnearthInsight tracks transfer pricing or revenues of India GCC entities of over 1,000 out of the current nearly 1,800 GCCs in India through government filings and primary research on India’s technology spending in the form of managed deals, sub-contracting or staffing, CoE and innovation partnerships, it told ET. This is further validated
by the India business portion of IT services, staffing or recruitment players as GCC revenue is a small part of overall India business as they directly bill India entities, the company said.
“In the past few years, with a significant portion of digital transformation programs moving to GCCs, major IT services companies have embraced multiple models to participate in these change-the-business opportunities,” said Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, Partner at Catalincs, a tech growth advisory firm.
These models include strategic staffing, build-operate-transfer (BOT), co-development of products and solutions, co-investment in centres of excellence (CoEs), among others.
“Given the anaemic organic revenue growth, these IT companies are doing what it takes to rev up growth, including expanding their GCC footprint, increasing sale of pre-bought product licenses, and taking on client assets on their books,” Ramamoorthy added.
GCCs, which are typically offshore backoffice centres of multinational firms, are expanding in India at an over 40% growth rate (in FY24) with the potential to move from implementers to co-creators of enterprise strategy. On the other hand, top five Indian IT companies posted negative to sub-5% growth for the same period and reported
similar numbers for fiscal 2025.
As per industry body Nasscom, India is the GCC capital with 17% of global centres at around 1,750, contributing around $64.6 billion to services exports, estimated to touch $100 billion by 2030.
Several IT firms have aligned with this shift, said Arindam Sen, partner and GCC leader for EY India. Besides dedicated GCC practices and rolling out “GCC-as-a-Service” models, a few are even pivoting service portfolios and creating senior leadership roles focused solely on the GCC mandate, placing bold bets on this expanding opportunity.
“Not just the largest players, mid-sized firms are carving out their own niches. It’s a structural shift, and one that could well define the next decade of growth for India’s IT and GCC industries,” Sen added.
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The figure hovers somewhere around the sub-$10 billion mark for GCC services business for the $283 billion software services industry.
“At an industry level, about 3-4% of Indian tech industry revenue i.e., $5-6 billion, is the GCC spending in INR (Indian rupee) from India entity towards IT, staffing firms & consulting in India providing managed services, staff augmentation, digital transformation & research/ consulting services,” said Gaurav Vasu, founder and CEO of UnearthInsight, an India-based data and research platform.
Largest beneficiaries are Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, HCLTech, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, UnearthInsight suggests.
To be sure, presently, the IT outsourcing companies, currently struggling with business growth, does not explicitly disclose revenue generated from GCCs as they are reported as client relationships and not as industry vertical such as banking and financial services, manufacturing, telecom, retail, etc.
Meanwhile, mid-sized IT player Coforge has called out that the company is starting to add around 10% from GCCs, roughly $147 million to its revenues, as it doubles down on the sector that has posed to be among its rising competitors.
“Today for Coforge, about 1.5% of our revenue this year is likely to come from the setup of Greenfield GCCs (setup business). There's another 8% of our revenue that comes from working with brownfield GCCs that we've been working with for many years,” said Sudhir Singh, CEO of Coforge in the post earnings call in July.
UnearthInsight tracks transfer pricing or revenues of India GCC entities of over 1,000 out of the current nearly 1,800 GCCs in India through government filings and primary research on India’s technology spending in the form of managed deals, sub-contracting or staffing, CoE and innovation partnerships, it told ET. This is further validated
by the India business portion of IT services, staffing or recruitment players as GCC revenue is a small part of overall India business as they directly bill India entities, the company said.
“In the past few years, with a significant portion of digital transformation programs moving to GCCs, major IT services companies have embraced multiple models to participate in these change-the-business opportunities,” said Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, Partner at Catalincs, a tech growth advisory firm.
These models include strategic staffing, build-operate-transfer (BOT), co-development of products and solutions, co-investment in centres of excellence (CoEs), among others.
“Given the anaemic organic revenue growth, these IT companies are doing what it takes to rev up growth, including expanding their GCC footprint, increasing sale of pre-bought product licenses, and taking on client assets on their books,” Ramamoorthy added.
GCCs, which are typically offshore backoffice centres of multinational firms, are expanding in India at an over 40% growth rate (in FY24) with the potential to move from implementers to co-creators of enterprise strategy. On the other hand, top five Indian IT companies posted negative to sub-5% growth for the same period and reported
similar numbers for fiscal 2025.
As per industry body Nasscom, India is the GCC capital with 17% of global centres at around 1,750, contributing around $64.6 billion to services exports, estimated to touch $100 billion by 2030.
Several IT firms have aligned with this shift, said Arindam Sen, partner and GCC leader for EY India. Besides dedicated GCC practices and rolling out “GCC-as-a-Service” models, a few are even pivoting service portfolios and creating senior leadership roles focused solely on the GCC mandate, placing bold bets on this expanding opportunity.
“Not just the largest players, mid-sized firms are carving out their own niches. It’s a structural shift, and one that could well define the next decade of growth for India’s IT and GCC industries,” Sen added.
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