For decades, India’s Global Capability Center (GCC) story was written by a handful of cities. Bangalore led as the undisputed technology capital. Hyderabad steadily built its own GCC empire. Pune grew into a strong engineering hub, while Chennai anchored the south with deep manufacturing and IT integration. Delhi NCR commanded the north through a network of corporate headquarters and industrial belts stretching from Gurugram to Noida. Everyone else waited for their turn.

That wait is now ending and quickly.

A promising new wave of GCC expansion is sweeping across cities that, until recently, rarely featured on  multinationals’ location shortlists. Coimbatore, Lucknow, Indore, Jaipur, Kochi, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Visakhapatnam, Mangalore, Mysuru, Surat and Thiruvananthapuram are increasingly attracting capital, attention and talent. According to ANSR’s 2026 Emerging Cities: India’s Next Frontier for GCC Expansion report, GCC job openings in emerging cities have risen 42%, compared with approximately 19% in traditional metros. This is more than incremental growth; it marks a genuine structural shift.

The opportunity is significant. The real question is whether India’s governments, industry and cities are ready to manage it well.

Why now and why these cities

The shift is not accidental. Three forces have converged to create this moment.

• Cost advantage: Rising real estate and talent costs in metros have strengthened the case for diversification. The ANSR report also finds that talent acquisition and retention costs and Grade A office rents can be 25-30% lower than in Tier-1 metros.
• Infrastructure maturity: Tier-2 cities have benefited from sustained investment in connectivity, digital infrastructure and commercial real estate. Many now offer reliable power, strong fiber connectivity, airport access and a growing supply of grade-A office space.
• Policy momentum: Between 2024 and early 2026, 10 states either drafted or announced dedicated GCC policies, offering incentives, skilling support and ready infrastructure. Healthy competition between states has accelerated decision-making across the board.

Together, these forces have moved next-wave cities from a speculative option to a credible, strategic choice.

Challenges worth getting ahead of

The opportunity is real, and so are the pressures that come with it. Addressing them early will only strengthen the momentum already underway.

• Infrastructure pace: Private capital is moving faster than urban systems can absorb. Transport, housing, healthcare and education are working to keep pace with rapid job creation. Coordinated planning can help emerging cities avoid replicating metro-level congestion, and in doing so, protect the cost advantages driving this shift.
• Governance and execution capacity: Cities vary in administrative strength, financing capacity and execution capability, and these differences directly shape outcomes. Even the most promising locations need governance structures that can keep pace with private investment, so that investor confidence stays consistent and large-scale commitments aren’t delayed.
• Talent depth at mid and senior levels: Entry-level talent supply is relatively strong, but mid-level and senior talent remain constrained. Higher attrition in metros continues to pull experienced professionals away from emerging locations, affecting continuity, leadership depth and scalability. Senior hiring cycles in Tier-2 GCC locations can stretch beyond 45-60 days. A gap that, once closed, would let GCCs scale confidently beyond entry-level work into high-value, complex functions.
• Data governance and compliance: GCCs handle large volumes of sensitive data across R&D, analytics and digital operations and must comply with complex regulations such as India’s Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This compliance burden is growing faster than the capabilities available in most next-wave cities today. With deliberate action from government and industry alike, these locations can build the credibility needed to attract regulated, high-value global mandates.

The way forward: Strategic recommendations

Building on this momentum calls for aligned action across three fronts: government, industry and collaborative frameworks. Collaboration remains the most difficult, and most valuable, lever of all.

1. Policy measures and enabling actions for the government

State governments are central to this transition. The decisions made over the next 24-36 months on where to concentrate investment, how to structure incentives and what institutional capacity to build will shape which cities emerge as genuine GCC clusters.

• Focus, don’t spread thin: States should identify one or two priority cities and back them with a time-bound upgrade plan and clear milestones. Depth of investment in fewer locations will outperform a broad, diluted approach, accelerating ecosystem maturity and building globally competitive GCC clusters.
• Incentivize outcomes, not just inputs: Policy design should reward measurable results, such as intellectual property (IP) creation, product innovation and high-quality local employment, rather than the mere establishment of a presence. Public procurement and government demand can provide early market access, credibility and scale, helping shift GCCs from cost centers to innovation-driven value creators.
• Target the right talent layer: Addressing the shortage of mid-level talent is key to scaling GCCs in emerging locations. States can address this through relocation support, structured career pathways and ecosystem development, freeing GCCs to take on more than entry-level work.
• Build the academic and research ecosystem: States should establish, fund or partner with premier institutions near priority cities to strengthen talent pipelines and research capabilities for the long term.

2. Industry-led initiatives to drive growth and competitiveness

Government can enable the shift, but industry determines its pace. Organizations that invest early and build meaningful presence have the chance to shape local ecosystems rather than inherit them.

• Establish presence, not outposts: Organizations should scale GCCs, innovation labs and capability centers rather than small satellite offices. Larger operations create stronger ecosystem impact, accelerating development and strengthening talent attraction and retention.
• Build local compliance capability: Organizations should build compliance capabilities within GCC teams, including roles such as privacy officers, data protection officers, cybersecurity specialists and risk managers, unlocking access to higher-value, regulated global mandates.
• Share playbooks, track outcomes: Organizations that have already scaled beyond metros can share learnings and track metrics that matter, such as cost efficiency, attrition and innovation output. Shared evidence reduces others' expansion risk and builds confidence for broader adoption.

3. Collaborative frameworks between government and industry

Sustained progress depends on coordination. Government and industry working together can align policy, talent and infrastructure with demand far more effectively than either could alone.

• Co-fund job-linked skilling at scale: Joint skilling programs designed around actual GCC demand, particularly when tied to hiring commitments, close the employability gap far more effectively than standalone training initiatives.
• Prioritize critical enabling infrastructure: Data centers, innovation hubs and logistics infrastructure are vital for GCC operations. Targeted investment with clear delivery timelines signals seriousness to investors weighing location decisions.
• Align growth with environmental, social and governance goals: Incentives should promote sustainable and inclusive growth, including local employment, gender diversity and environmental standards, strengthening long-term viability and stakeholder trust.
• Enable transparent, data-driven governance: Public dashboards tracking jobs, infrastructure readiness, startup density and quality-of-life indicators create accountability where it matters most and drive healthy competition across cities.

The strategic imperative

India’s expansion into next-wave GCC cities is already reshaping its knowledge economy. According to the same ANSR report, emerging cities already host more than 220 GCC units and 86,000 GCC professionals, with GCC activity in these locations growing at nearly 11% CAGR.

These are not hypothetical outcomes; they are already happening. Policy intent is clearer than ever, and private-sector momentum continues to build. The experience gained in building Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune into world-class capability hubs does not need to be relearned; it simply needs to be reapplied, sooner and at a greater scale.

The question is no longer whether these cities will rise; it is how effectively they scale. With the right focus and coordination, the path ahead is clear and full of promise. India has done this before, and the opportunity now is to do it faster, better and on a far greater scale.