Cloud and GCCs powering India's digital future says MEITY-ICRIER
14 Mar 2025 / 05 min read
GCCs are driving innovation and growth in areas such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, and cybersecurity
India's digital economy is poised to drive a fifth of the country's GDP by 2030, with cloud computing and global capability centers (GCCs) emerging as key growth drivers, a report by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) said.
The report, released in January 2025, valued India's digital economy at 31.64 trillion rupees ($405 billion) in GDP terms in 2022-23, with the traditional ICT sector remaining the largest component.
However, digital platforms and the digitalization of brick-and-mortar sectors are growing rapidly, with the cloud market projected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24% from 2024 to 2027, reaching $20.3 billion by the end of 2027.
But it’s the GCC sector that's truly booming, with India emerging as the world's GCC capital. GCCs are offshore centres established by multinational corporations to provide a variety of services to their parent organisations, including R&D, IT support, and business process management.
GCCs, also known as global in-house centers (GICs), are offshore centers established by multinational corporations to provide a variety of services to their parent organizations, including research and development (R&D), IT support, and business process management.
The report noted that nine of the top 22 GCCs in India are classified within the ICT sector, specifically computer-related services. These GCCs are driving innovation and growth in areas such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, and cybersecurity.
India has solidified its position as a premier destination for Global Capability Centers(GCCs), with over 1,600 centers currently operating in the country, up from 760 in 2012.
According to the finance ministry’s Economic Survey 2023-24, in 2022 and 2023 alone, more than 150 multinationals have set up their GCCs in India, drawn by the country's vast talent pool, favorable business environment, and government support.
The growth of GCCs in India dates back to 1985, when Texas Instruments established its office in Bengaluru, marking the beginning of the offshoring era. Since then, numerous airlines, technology companies, and other multinationals have followed suit, establishing their captive centers, now known as GCCs or GICs.
According to a PwC report, the number of GCCs in India is projected to reach 2,100 by 2028, with the market size expected to touch $90 billion. A separate study by Wizmatic estimates that GCCs currently employ 3.2 million people, primarily engineers and scientists, and generated a combined revenue of $46 billion in 2023.
By 2030, GCCs in India are expected to generate a total revenue of $121 billion, representing roughly 3.5% of the country's GDP, with $102 billion coming from export earnings.
The MEITY-ICRIER report also highlighted the growing importance of GCCs in driving economic growth and job creation in India. GCCs are estimated to have generated over $20 billion in revenue in 2022, and employ over 500,000 people directly and indirectly.
