India to have 200 new GCCs by 2025; growth to help office space: JLL

Facilities that support parent companies by handling various operations expanding in country's smaller cities, says senior executive of real estate consultancy

India will likely have some 200 new global capability centres (GCCs) in the next two years, said the senior executive of a real estate consultancy on Tuesday.

There are 1,540 GCCs in India and they are fuelling the growth of office real estate, said Manish Aggarwal, senior managing director (North & East India) at JLL India. A GCC supports its parent company by handling operations like technology, customer service, finance, and product development. Global giants like Visa, Amazon, Wells Fargo and American Express have established GCCs in India.

 

More than 1.66 million Indians worked in GCCs at the end of the financial year 2022-23, according to the latest Nasscom-Zinnov ‘GCC trends Report’. The centres in India focused on artificial intelligence, machine learning, cybersecurity and foundational intellectual property solutions.

These centres demand “high-class, tech-integrated”, according to the report. Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi national capital region, Mumbai, Pune, and Chennai are the most popular destinations for GCCs in India, according to reports earlier.

Aggarwal said that GCCs are now being set up in some Tier-II cities. In office real estate, there is a considerable rise in flexible spaces as companies avoid capital expenditure for expanding in Tier-II and III cities.

In 2022, as many as 131,000 new flex office seats were added in India. The number rose to 167,000 in 2023 and in the January-March quarter this year, it is at 31,000.

Aggarwal said the number of new flex seats in 2024 would be more than last year as typically there is a higher take-up between the last two quarters of a calendar year.