India’s GCC growth is often measured through new centre announcements, hiring plans and investments. But significant growth is also taking place within GCCs that are already well established in the country.
Many of these centres are expanding beyond the functions they were initially set up to support. Product engineering, data and analytics, AI, digital platforms and other specialised technology capabilities are increasingly becoming part of their portfolios.
HFS Research’s 2026 GCC Services study provides a useful indication of this activity. Brownfield engagements involving established GCCs account for 52% of GCC-provider activity, compared with 43% for new greenfield establishments.
This does not suggest that new GCC establishment is becoming less important. Rather, it highlights another significant source of opportunity within India’s large and increasingly mature GCC base.
From scaling teams to building capabilities
There is an important distinction between expanding an existing function and establishing a capability that did not previously exist within the GCC.
Adding capacity to a mature software development team, for example, is different from establishing product engineering for a new business line, taking ownership of a global technology platform or introducing a specialised data capability.
Each can require a different combination of domain knowledge, technical expertise, leadership and delivery structure.
Industry estimates reported by The Economic Times indicate that 40% to 60% of GCC growth is now coming from new capability creation, particularly across areas such as AI, product engineering and digital platforms.
That is an important development because it changes the nature of the GCC growth conversation.
The requirement is increasingly not just, “How do we add capacity?” It can also be, “How do we establish a capability that the organisation wants India to own?”
Capability building can take different forms
Not every new capability needs to be created in the same way.
Where an organisation has the required expertise and sufficient time to develop the function, internal hiring may be the logical approach. In other situations, the requirement may involve scarce skills, an accelerated timeline or expertise that is needed intensively during the initial stages of a programme.
This is where different partnership structures can become useful.
A GCC may work with specialised engineering teams around a particular product or technology domain. Forward-deployed engineers can work closely within the enterprise environment when a programme requires direct alignment between engineering and business context. Managed services can provide ongoing responsibility for defined areas, while structured build-and-transition approaches can support capabilities that the organisation ultimately intends to own internally.
The choice should depend on the capability being established, the expertise already available within the GCC, the speed at which it needs to become operational and the level of ownership the enterprise wants over time.
What this changes for technology partners
As GCCs develop stronger internal technology organisations, the role of external partners also becomes more specialised.
For an established GCC, value does not necessarily come from replicating capabilities it already possesses. It comes from complementing those strengths.
That may mean providing specialised engineering expertise for a new product area, supporting a transformation programme, helping establish a new technology capability or providing additional depth at a point when the GCC needs to move faster than internal capability development alone would allow.
For technology partners, this raises the importance of understanding the broader business context. Knowing the number of resources required is no longer sufficient. Partners need to understand what capability is being created, why the enterprise needs it, how it will integrate with existing teams and what the GCC ultimately intends to own.
That is a more strategic commercial conversation than capacity alone.
A broader view of India’s GCC opportunity
India will continue to see enterprises establish new GCCs. At the same time, its large base of established centres represents a substantial opportunity for continued capability expansion.
That growth may not always appear as a new GCC announcement. It may be a product now engineered from India, a global platform moving under an India-based team, or a specialised capability being established within an existing centre.
For enterprises, this creates more options for how capabilities are built and scaled. For technology partners, it increases the importance of specialisation, flexibility and the ability to work effectively alongside established GCC teams.
India’s GCC growth landscape is therefore being shaped not only by the number of centres operating here, but also by the increasing breadth and complexity of what those centres deliver.