India’s GCCs Emerge as Global Engines of Innovation and Growth

Ranjeetha Raja, Head of Transformation at Broadridge India, shares with Dataquest and CiOL on how India’s GCCs are redefining enterprise transformation. She outlines the factors that make India a global hub for innovation—from deep tech talent and startup collaboration to AI-driven reinvention—and explains why the next growth phase will hinge on leadership development, resilience, and strategic convergence between GCCs and IT services.

What do you see as the biggest opportunity for India to strengthen its position as the global GCC hub over the next five years? What’s the compelling value proposition right now?

GCCs have become the backbone of enterprise transformation, moving far beyond their origins as cost-efficient delivery hubs. Today, India is at the forefront of this evolution, home to some of the largest and most advanced GCCs in the world. Over the next five years, India’s biggest opportunity lies in cementing its role as a value-driven transformation engine, where GCCs lead innovation, accelerate digital adoption, and shape the future of industries worldwide.

Several factors make India uniquely positioned to seize this moment:
● India offers one of the deepest pools of skilled professionals in technology, finance, and operations, with organizations already employing hundreds of thousands across key cities. This talent base is becoming more specialized in AI, cloud, blockchain, and data analytics skills that are in high demand globally.
● Partnerships with startups, accelerators, and academia are enabling companies to move beyond delivery into co-creation, fostering rapid experimentation and the scaling of new solutions.
● Financial services companies in India, like Broadridge, are leading reinvention in areas such as post-trade operations, compliance automation, and tokenized assets, showing that the country can drive not just efficiency but also industry-level transformation.
● Indian businesses offer round-the-clock operations, faster go-to-market cycles, and robust compliance and cybersecurity practices, which are crucial in a globally interconnected environment.

India is not just providing global enterprises with cost efficiency; it is offering them a platform for resilience, agility, and growth. With GCCs increasingly driving core product development, advanced analytics, and AI-powered platforms from India, the country is well on track to evolve into the innovation engine of the global GCC landscape.

What do you consider the most critical challenge that could slow or limit India’s GCC growth story if not addressed in time?

Instead of looking at the most critical challenge, I would ask ourselves what are the next biggest opportunities to take the India GCC growth into its next orbit of success. Human capital development would be at the core here, and this manifests in multiple ways. Given the rapid pace of change in technology, regulations, and markets, along with the disruption caused by AI, there needs to be constant upskilling and reskilling of the talent force. Equally important is to build a strong leadership pipeline ready to play global roles, drive strategic businesses, and create further growth for the organization.

How should GCCs in India evolve to move beyond cost arbitrage and deliver greater innovation and strategic value?

The next chapter of India’s GCC story will be defined not by cost savings but by innovation and strategic impact. As global enterprises expect more than efficiency, India has the opportunity to position its GCCs as engines of transformation. To move beyond a cost-focused model, these businesses must make innovation central to operations by leveraging AI, automation, and data analytics to transform end-to-end processes, deliver actionable insights, and enhance client experiences.

GCCs can evolve into co-creation and R&D hubs by partnering with startups, accelerators, and academic institutions to develop new products and platforms, fostering rapid experimentation and scalable innovation. Moving from siloed services to integrated, platform-based solutions enables faster onboarding, simplified compliance, and data-driven decision-making.

Deep domain expertise in sectors such as BFSI, healthcare, and manufacturing allows GCCs to identify challenges and deliver high-value solutions. By adopting an outcome-oriented mindset, building resilience and agility, and leveraging data as a strategic asset, organizations can support complex global operations while accelerating innovation.

Collaboration with IT services firms further strengthens capabilities, combining scale and integration with strategic, IP-driven value creation for long-term impact. Lastly, India is also becoming increasingly attractive as a market. Given their local presence, access to talent, and proximity to federal and industry bodies, GCCs have a unique opportunity to find new markets and customers for their global businesses.

How will the traditional IT services industry intersect with the GCC model: will it be competition, collaboration, or convergence?

As enterprises navigate a world demanding speed and innovation, the paths of traditional IT services and GCCs are increasingly intersecting. This intersection is shaping less around competition and more around collaboration and eventual convergence. IT services firms bring scale, deep implementation expertise, and managed services, while companies contribute specialized domain knowledge, product ownership, and close alignment with the enterprise’s core strategy.

In practice, organizations often rely on IT partners for execution bandwidth, while IT firms turn to companies for co-innovation opportunities and access to advanced capabilities. As organizations mature into centers of excellence, they are expanding to include platform engineering, digital transformation, and managed operations, while IT services firms are building captive-like innovation labs to mirror GCC models.

The growing global demand for digital transformation, AI adoption, and platform modernization ensures both models will expand. The key differentiator will be how effectively they co-create value, with GCCs anchoring strategy, intellectual property, and innovation, and IT services firms driving scale, integration, and global delivery, resulting in a hybrid ecosystem that accelerates enterprise transformation.