Knight Frank, in their report ‘cited that office absorption by Global Capability Centres (GCC) is estimated to reach 26 mn sq ft by 2027 up from 19.69 mn sq ft in 2023. Transaction activities have increased by 16% from 16.99 mn sq ft in 2018 with GCCs completing 6,667 office leasing deals across eight major cities between 2018 and 2023. The growth of GCCs highlights India's potential to enhance processes and drive business innovation.
The report highlighted an urgent need for Data, AI and Analytics leaders in GCCs to collaboratively come together to discuss their greater role to create competitive advantage for their global enterprises. It is imperative to constantly identify new growth opportunities, drive innovation with Gen AI and realign business strategies.
IT/ITeS sector GCCs lead the chart followed by BFSI and Consulting GCCs. For BFSI, Mumbai leads with highest percentage of GCCs under the BFSI sector and Bengaluru leads with highest percentage of GCCs in the IT/ITeS sector.
Between 2018 and 2023, around 5,349 GCC focussed office deals were finalised under 50,000 sq ft across the 8 cities.; 790 GCC deals took place between 50,000 and 100,000 sq ft, which can be marked as the medium segment. Around 528 GCC deals of above 100,000 sq ft were the largest deals signed between 2018 and 2023.
Rahil Gibran, National Director, Occupier Strategy and Solutions, Bengaluru, Knight Frank India said, “India's GCC market is expected to grow unabated over the next few years and already witnessed a high momentum with the current number of GCCs standing at around 1600 plus in the country. The development of new GCCs specially catering to manufacturing sector has increased on a year-on-year basis and the talent landscape mainly in the technology sector has evolved over the years to meet the growing demand of new GCCs hence helping the growth of GCC in India.”
The current global operating model primarily balances roles based on location. The new distributed model incorporates centralized work-from-home strategies to minimize costs while maintaining risk and effectiveness. Migration of roles within this new model can achieve higher savings and lower costs effectively. From the model chart, the hybrid model gives the maximum benefit for a GCC in India.
India remains a key hub for GCCs, alongside other destinations such as the US, Latin America, China, Europe, and the APAC region. India, the US, and China stand out for their ease of hiring talent. Conversely, India, and the APAC region are noted for lower operational costs compared to global averages. Therefore, multinational corporations worldwide, increasingly view India as a preferred destination for establishing or expanding operations, with US companies at the forefront of this trend.
