New Delhi, July 14 : Vandana Gurnani, Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, exhorted Global Capability Centres (GCCs) on Monday to leverage existing government schemes for hiring talent in the country.

She urged the GCCs to engage with government initiatives such as the Employment Linked Incentive Scheme, which holds substantial potential for job creation, and the National Career Services Portal, a comprehensive platform with partnerships across major firms offering job matching services, to find talent.

Gurnani was speaking at the GCC Business Summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.

Discussing ongoing labour reforms, she noted the implementation of the Labour Codes and highlighted ongoing collaboration with state governments to drive these reforms. She also outlined the expansion of career lounges in universities, which can serve as talent pipelines for the GCC sector, and noted India's international agreements for workforce mobility that can be effectively leveraged for GCC operations.

Outlining India's core competitive advantages that have enabled GCC's phenomenal growth trajectory, Anuradha Thakur, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, pointed to strong physical and digital infrastructure, strategic interventions through the Digital India initiative, streamlined approval processes, large talent strength, and a robust regulatory environment built over the past decade.

Underscoring India's talent strengths, Thakur pointed to the country's large annual output of STEM graduates, a diverse workforce with significant female participation, and a young median age. She emphasised that these demographic factors provide fertile ground for continued GCC growth and expansion.

Sanjay Bahadur, Member (Income Tax), Central Board of Direct Taxes, recognised the sector's remarkable growth and its rising contribution to India's GDP and employment. He highlighted the dramatic evolution of GCCs from basic outsourcing units to complex, cross-border operations engaging in high-value functions.

He further noted that modern GCCs are involved in sophisticated design innovation, backend services, and engineering inputs, creating complex value chains that pose unique challenges in transfer pricing.

'The Central Government has begun formulating a comprehensive national framework for GCCs to enhance their growth and expand their base,' said K K Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Singh observed that the majority of GCCs are concentrated in six major locations, with significant presence in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, and Chennai, while only a small share operates in emerging cities. He acknowledged the challenges of expanding into tier-2 cities and underlined the government's intent to benchmark and replicate best practices from successful tier-1 hubs.

Gunjan Samtani, Chair of the CII Taskforce on GCCs and co-chairman of Goldman Sachs in India, co-presented a framework for the National GCC Policy that would serve as a roadmap to expanding India's GCCs to around 5,000 units in the coming years.

/IANS