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When Merck unveiled its new global capability centre (GCC) in Hyderabad this year, it wasn’t just another expansion story, it was a marker of India’s growing role in global healthcare. In the same quarter, Philips scaled up its Bengaluru GCC to focus on healthcare analytics and IoT, while Takeda opened a new innovation hub in Bengaluru to accelerate clinical trials and R&D. These announcements are not isolated. They point to a global shift – healthcare companies are betting big on India to lead the next wave of innovation.

While tech and finance GCCs have long led India’s global services play, healthcare GCCs are now carving their own space, moving beyond support to become core innovation hubs.

A Decade of Quiet Build-Up — And Then, a Tipping Point

Over the past decade, India has steadily grown its GCC muscle. According to Healthark Insights, in 2010, there were barely 20 Life Sciences and Healthcare (LSHC) GCCs in the country. As of 2024, there are over 100. That’s not just incremental growth — that’s a strategic overhaul.

And it’s happening in the context of a much larger boom. Across sectors, India’s entire GCC ecosystem is projected to reach 2,500 centres by 2025, employing over 4.5 million professionals. Healthcare and life sciences account for a growing share of this pie — over 15% of the total workforce, according to Inductus GCC estimates.

Companies aren’t just scaling; they’re investing. Eli Lilly runs operations in both Bengaluru and Hyderabad, leveraging AI, automation, and cloud platforms to improve the speed and efficiency of drug delivery. Sanofi’s Hyderabad GCC is applying AI across its drug discovery value chain, accelerating the path from molecule to market. Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) leads digital transformation and R&D from its Hyderabad base. Roche taps its India GCC to build out advanced clinical solutions and personalised medicine strategies. Novartis, one of the earliest adopters, uses its India centre for clinical trials, pharmacovigilance, and real-world evidence analytics.

The broader GCC industry is expected to hit a US$100 billion valuation by 2030 and Healthcare is expected to be a major driver of that surge.

Healthcare GCC Map Expanding Beyond Bengaluru

Geographically, India’s healthcare GCC footprint is concentrated. Around 85% of centres are located in four cities: Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi-NCR. Bengaluru accounts for a third of the total – no surprise, given its long-standing edge in tech talent and R&D. But Hyderabad is fast becoming the pharma and healthtech twin engine. Telangana’s capital now accounts for 11% of India’s GCC population and an astonishing 40% of pharmaceutical production. It also has the lowest attrition rate among Tier-I cities – just 11%, according to a Zinnov-AMCHAM report.

With healthcare GCCs expanding into tier-2 cities, and government incentives supporting that growth, the next wave could be far more geographically diverse.

From Code to Cure: Driving Real Healthcare Innovation

Indian GCCs are no longer doing grunt work. They’re owning product development and strategy.

AI adoption among healthcare GCCs has jumped from 65% to 86% in just five years, according to Zinnov-AMCHAM. Platforms using AI for computational biology, clinical trial simulation, and real-time diagnostics are being built and exported from Indian cities. Blockchain is being deployed in drug supply chains and patient data systems. IoT is enabling real-time monitoring in clinical environments.

Companies like Lilly, AstraZeneca, and Novartis aren’t expanding here just for talent arbitrage. They’re building long-term R&D firepower. Lilly’s new capability centre in Bengaluru is focused entirely on data science and innovation. AstraZeneca has invested ₹166 crore to scale R&D in India. Pfizer, Abbott, Medtronic, and Cardinal Health are also growing their footprint in similar ways.

These are not back offices anymore. They’re global command centres.

Economics Meets Ecosystem

The cost advantage still matters. The operational cost in India is 60–70% lower than in the US and Europe, which provides heavy savings on infrastructure and salary. But what’s drawing companies in now is the full stack: access to deep tech talent, a growing startup ecosystem, proximity to leading universities, and supportive state policies.

The numbers speak volumes. Pharma commercial services delivered through GCCs have grown 2.5x in the last five years. The entire GCC industry (across sectors) generated US$64.6 billion in export revenue in 2024 alone. 

Healthcare India GCC, within 6 years of inception has scaled to house 72% of its global headcount. They are expected to employ over 420,000 professionals by 2025, and the broader ecosystem could contribute up to 5% of India’s GDP.

According to Zinnov-AMCHAM, nearly 90% of new GCCs now follow provider-assisted or Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) models, a sign that global players are thinking longer-term and are open to co-building capabilities with Indian partners.

There are still challenges. Talent retention is one, as attrition remains high in some cities. Regulatory navigation for clinical trials remains a maze and infrastructure in smaller cities is still catching up. But these are surmountable. With government-backed initiatives and tier-2 cities like Ahmedabad, Pune, and Bhubaneswar ramping up, the next few years could broaden the map.

India’s healthcare GCCs no longer support functions sitting on the sidelines. They’re influencing product roadmaps, running R&D programmes, launching digital platforms, and shaping global clinical strategies. The recent expansions by Merck, Philips, and Takeda only reaffirm that India is being called up to the front lines of global healthcare.

The bet global healthcare is making on India today isn’t just about cost or capacity. It’s about capability and conviction.