Indian GCCs and the talent landscape

Today there are some 1.9 million people working in India’s GCC sector, as estimated by Nasscom, India’s tech industry’s biggest lobby. Of these, a modest 82,000 are in Tier III locations. Within the total workforce, the sector includes some 120,000 AI specialists. And there are 185 GCCs that have centres of excellence for AI and machine learning, according to the India GCC Landscape report published by Nasscom and the consultancy Zinnov last year. The report projects the GCC workforce to grow at a CAGR of 6 to 8 percent to reach 2.5 million to 2.8 million in 2030.

The rise of the GCCs in India is also happening at a time when the country’s biggest IT services companies have stopped hiring in large numbers, faced with cost cutting and demand for AI-led automation among clients. TCS and Infosys, the top two Indian IT services companies, for example, have seen their collective workforce shrink by about 30,600 people, net, from the beginning of Q3FY23 to the end of Q3FY25.

Teamlease, in a report, notes that GCCs will likely hire more entry-level recruits too, in the future, as the sector becomes bigger, compared with their practice of onboarding more experienced people in the past. GCCs will also pay “premium salaries” where in-demand skills are concerned, says Teamlease Digital, a unit of the staffing provider.

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In cybersecurity and network administration, for example, penetration tester, data scientist, full stack developer, big data developer, cybersecurity specialist, and blockchain developer are some of the most in-demand roles.

In this domain, GCCs are expected to lead with an average salary of ₹9.57 lakh per annum, which is 40.12 percent higher than their IT counterparts, Teamlease Digital projected in November, for the year ahead. IT products and services companies may offer ₹6.83 lakh per annum on average, and non-tech companies will likely offer around ₹5.17 lakh per annum.

“While IT services have seen a slowdown, GCCs are expected to lead the way, offering premium salaries,” Neeti Sharma, CEO of TeamLease Digital, says in an email. In roles like penetration testing and data science, average entry-level packages can be as high as ₹11.8 lakh per annum. This surge can be attributed to the rapid expansion of GCCs in India and their need to maintain global standards, Sharma adds.

A multi-stakeholder effort is critical for a strong future pipeline of talent, even in the specific context of GCCs, Alouk Kumar, founder of Inductus, an IT and ITES staffing provider, tells Forbes India.

Cost continues to be a big factor for global tech investments in India-based talent. “India is the only destination which offers unmatched cost,” Kumar says. “It’s 60 to 70 percent economical in terms of talent, compared with the US or some of the other rich countries.”

A talent crunch in the future can’t be ruled out at this stage, Kumar says. The IT industry evolved over a period of 25 years, but the pace at which the GCCs are being added in India is faster, he says. “GCCs, all of a sudden many companies have come down… and all of them will require high-end professionals”. Industry estimates put the number of new GCCs in India in the last 12 months at more than 40.

While entry-level availability might be more stable, because of large numbers at the base of the pyramid, as one seeks more experienced people, “there, we have a relatively limited resource base”, Kumar points out. And if the IT companies turn a corner, as some experts hope will happen in the latter half of 2025, competition will increase for lateral recruits.

At the top end, advanced centres are stepping up their own in-house efforts to train and recruit the best engineers. AMD India’s Senior VP and Country Head Jaya Jagadish says the company’s global design centre takes in engineering graduate and even doctoral-level interns to work on AMD’s own projects, not dummy projects created for them, but ongoing R&D and commercial projects—for periods of nine months.

The best from this cohort has a chance to be absorbed into the company’s growing team of world-class semiconductor designers. And the semiconductor design sector is but one example of how India’s talent ecosystem today offers exciting opportunities to engineers. “I truly feel like we are at the right place at the right time. And this is something I want to give a shout out to all the students out there who are looking for career opportunities,” Jaya says. There are challenges aplenty in fantastic fields and opportunities on offer to “develop yourself as a true engineer”, she says.