MNCs' India-based captive centres moving up in value chain

The captive information technology (IT) centres of global corporations, also known as global in-house centre (GIC) in India, are moving up in the value chain, a top Nasscom official said on Thursday.

Speaking at the 'Global In-House Centre' conclave organised here by Nasscom, its president R. Chandrashekar said: "With GICs rapidly maturing and moving up the value chain, they are all set to play a pioneering role in providing sustained competitive advantage to their global enterprises."

"GICs are also being leveraged by their global enterprises to build the enterprise wide digital transformational capabilities," he added.

Nasscom, the lobby body for the Indian software industry, said GICs in India have rapidly evolved to impact the business of the global corporations and provide value beyond cost.

The next phase of evolution for GICs will focus on transforming itself into a global sourcing hub for all the organisation's IT and business process needs.

According to Nasscom, the GIC market has witnessed a double-digit growth in the last five years to reach $19.4 billion. The landscape in India is diverse and dominated by over 1,000 GICs and account for about a fifth of India's exports.

More smaller firms are now entering the engineering research and development (ER&D) and product development segment, Nasscom said.

With an estimated 300 firms, offering ER&D and product development services, particularly in emerging technologies of Internet-of-things, robotics, wearable devices, 3D printing and others, India is poised for become the focal point for GICs across the globe.

Nasscom also announced the launch of Nasscom Germany Council to focus on the interests of Germany GICs based in India and encourage a conclusive growth for both the countries.

The aim of the council will be to provide an exclusive platform for Germany-based GICs to interact with each other and gauge various dynamics that will encourage them to grow in the country.

It would also address various challenges at policy level as well as other matters that effect the growth of Germany GICs in the country.