Nearly 500 Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India are not realising their full potential and have begun to plateau, according to a report by UnearthIQ and Embark.
The report, titled The Great Plateau: Why GCCs are Unable to Reach their Full Potential, estimates that around 30% of GCCs established after 2020 have already plateaued, accounting for nearly 140-150 centres. It also estimates that 360-370 GCCs set up before 2020 are facing similar challenges, taking the total number of plateaued GCCs in the country to around 500-520.
The findings come as India’s GCC sector continues to grow. The report said the country is expected to host more than 2,500 GCCs by 2030, supported by global demand, policy support, and the growth of AI, digital and innovation-led nano GCCs. However, it noted that many centres are not evolving at the pace expected by global enterprises, which are increasingly looking beyond cost savings towards business impact and innovation.
“The plateau is not a sign of failure; it is a sign that the GCC model in India has reached an inflection point. Most GCCs are built to scale delivery. Few are designed to sustain relevance. The difference lies in design strength and execution discipline.
Historically, much focus has been on developing playbooks for setting up GCCs, while very little investment has been made in identifying frameworks and interventions to fully realize their potential. We hope this report is the first step in that direction and will generate a healthy debate on this subject,” said Gaurav Vasu and Shail Maniar, Co-founders of UnearthIQ.
The report identified several early signs of plateauing, including GCCs continuing to be viewed mainly as cost centres, slowing business impact despite workforce growth, slower decision-making, attrition among high performers, and limited progress in AI adoption beyond pilot projects.
It said structural issues such as limited leadership autonomy, execution-focused mandates, fragmented technology and data systems, and underinvestment in AI and platform capabilities are preventing many GCCs from taking on higher-value roles within global enterprises.
“As India’s GCC growth story gathers pace and new centres get set up, we believe the frameworks and interventions in this report will help enablers and GCC sponsors build organizations designed for long-term relevance and not just a successful Day 0, but a thriving Day 1000 and beyond. The centres that define this next phase, will be the ones that get the foundational choices right early, from the right governance model, the right talent strategy, and the right technology backbone to scale on,” said Aravind Maiya, Co-founder & CEO at Embark.