No, You’re Not a GCC.

Sector6  Jan 23, 2026 The bi-weekly newsletter by AIM that brings the biggest shifts shaping IT, AI, and GCCs. No, You're Not a GCC. Why does everyone want in on the 'GCC' label? Even Indian firms are keen to cash in on the acronym. And that's where the confusion begins. By Mohit Pandey Last week, the State Bank of India inaugurated a 'GCC' in Bengaluru. The centre will focus on digital platforms, data, AI, cybersecurity, and enterprise systems. On its own, it makes perfect sense. Large banks need serious tech engines to keep up.  But the announcement also reopened an old, slightly awkward question. What exactly counts as a global capability centre? Because right now, that definition is starting to wobble. India's GCC journey has been one of the country's rare, straightforward success stories. Over the last two decades, multinational companies moved more than their back offices to India. They brought in R&D, core engineering, platform ownership, and even parts of global decision-making. The label that captured this shift was simple and powerful: GCC. In its original sense, a GCC meant a unit owned by a foreign-headquartered company, set up outside its home country, to run critical functions supporting global operations. The word 'global' here was always about structure, not ambition. These centres served the parent company's worldwide business from India. Today, that line is getting blurrier by the day. Now, domestic banks, Indian conglomerates, and even IT services firms are calling their internal hubs 'GCCs'. The reasons aren't hard to spot. The term helps attract talent, signals sophistication, and carries a certain policy weight. It's a great label to have on the door. The only problem? It changes what the category even means. "We're witnessing a concerning dilution of what 'GCC' actually means, and not just in semantics. It has real implications for policy effectiveness, talent positioning, and India's competitive differentiation in the global services landscape," Alouk Kumar, CEO of Inductus Group, said. The ripple effects are already starting to show. AIM Network Deep Dive >> From Delhi's severe AQI that has lingered for months to Bengaluru's sudden pollution spikes, India is choking. But are the numbers we trust even accurate? Tech journalist Merin Susan John dismantles the 'blind spot' in India's air quality monitoring. The AI Foundry by Tredence in Chennai: A Workshop for Builders of Real-World AI The AI Foundry hosted by Tredence, in association with AIM, is heading to Chennai. On February 7, senior AI and data science professionals will gather for an invite-only developer workshop focused on one question that matters right now: How to move from experimenting with AI to actually building systems that work in the real world? Click here to register now. Before diving back to GCCs, let's take a look at some of the recent top news >> Speaking of GCCs, Mistral is in discussions to establish one in Bengaluru. HSR Layout is set to get Karnataka's ₹20 crore AI centre of excellence. Goa has signed an MoU with Starlink to boost digital connectivity, disaster resilience & smart governance. 90% of Salesforce's engineers use Cursor every day. The Telangana government has launched Aikam, a first-of-its-kind global AI innovation entity, at the World Economic Forum. Why Does the Definition of GCC Matter? For engineers, the label isn't just branding. A true GCC typically owns global platforms, shapes products used worldwide, and feeds strategic input back to headquarters. A rebranded delivery centre may not. When both are called the same thing, expectations get set—and then broken—very quickly. For governments, the risk is even larger. States have built policies specifically to attract foreign multinationals and anchor high-value work in India. Karnataka reimburses skilling costs. Telangana offers fast-track clearances and targeted support.  These incentives were designed for a specific kind of activity. When domestic entities claim the same label, data blurs, intent weakens, and resources drift away from the outcomes the polices were meant to drive. Legally, the term offers no guardrail. Technology lawyer Salman Waris points out that 'GCC' has no statutory meaning. Benefits come from legal structures like SEZs or IFSCs, not from what a centre chooses to call itself. Misuse only becomes risky when the label is used to claim incentives without meeting the underlying eligibility criteria. But strategy is where the real damage lies. Karthik Padmanabhan of Zinnov draws the line clearly. "A global capability centre is not a catch-all term for large or sophisticated tech hubs. It has a very specific meaning… You cannot be a GCC in your own headquarters country." Of course, there is room for nuance. Indian multinationals building regional hubs outside India may fit the model. New forms of hybrid centres will emerge. Labels will evolve. But the word 'global' still needs to signal something concrete—Foreign parentage, multinational scope, and work that shapes business beyond India. That is where discipline is now needed. If every large tech hub becomes a GCC, the term will lose its meaning. And when everyone is a GCC—no one is. Thriving Through Tech Change: A Leadership Guide to Supporting Mid-Career Talent Tech change is accelerating, and leaders can't afford to fall behind. 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