New Delhi, July 9 (IANS) India now hosts around half of the world's Global Capability Centres (GCCs) and has emerged as the second-largest base for enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) talent globally, reflecting the country's growing role in innovation, technology and high-value global business operations, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) V. Anantha Nageswaran said on Thursday.  Addressing the CII GCC Business Summit, Nageswaran said India's GCC ecosystem has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past two decades, evolving from a handful of back-office operations into more than 2,000 centres employing over 2 million professionals.

He said employment in the sector is now moving towards 2.3 million, while annual revenues have exceeded $60 billion and are on track to approach $100 billion. "India now hosts around half of the world's GCCs. This did not happen by accident; it happened because of our people, because talent is the heart of the matter," Nageswaran stated. "These centers first came to India for cost; they stayed for capability," he mentioned.

The CEA said GCCs now contribute nearly 2 per cent of India's gross domestic product (GDP) and account for a significant share of new office space developed across major Indian cities. He noted that no other country comes close to India's scale, with around half of the world's GCCs now operating from the country. Explaining the evolution of the sector, Nageswaran said Indian GCCs have moved far beyond their traditional role of providing cost-efficient back-office support. Today, they undertake high-value work across technology, engineering, research, product development, analytics and digital transformation.

He said global banks manage risk systems and trading platforms from Mumbai and Bengaluru, automobile manufacturers design vehicles and embedded systems from Chennai and Pune, semiconductor firms carry out chip design in India, pharmaceutical companies conduct clinical analytics, and consumer companies develop digital products from their Indian centres. "The intellectual property created in these centres is real. The patents are filed here, the products are shipped from here, and global roles are increasingly held by people sitting here," he said, adding that Indian GCCs have become the core of operations for many multinational companies.

--IANS