Global Capability Centers mushroom again as focus falls on India’s deep talent pool
Global Capability Centers (GCC), or captive technology facilities of large global lenders and MNCs, such as Citi, Deutsche Bank and T-Systems, are strengthening their Indian presence in their 2.0 avatar after having partially scaled down operations in the country around 10-15 years ago.
The global captives had sold a part or even their entire operations to Indian IT companies, mostly during the global financial crisis, to focus on core operations instead. But they now see India as a crucial profit and value-addition centre, helping their global headquarters in finance, supply chain, research and development (R&D) operations, building digital and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.
Deutsche Bank, which sold their captive to HCLTech in 2004, said its GCC has already onboarded over 2,500 hires so far this year and expects the trend to continue in the similar range for the rest of the year.
The German lender has a headcount of 20,000 people across the country, out of which around 16,000 work for its GCCs covering technology, finance, risk and operation units.
“India today is a mature market, a growth story that is backed by solid macro-fundamentals, a sizable workforce entering the formal economy, a digitally enabled population, and a deepening innovation ecosystem, all of which creates a deep talent pool – which the Deutsche Bank wants to tap into. We are invested in India and significantly, almost 20% of our global workforce is based in India," Dilipkumar Khandelwal, CEO of Deutsche India, told ET.
Similarly, Citi’s four captives–Citi e-Serve, CITOS, Orbitech and Iflex — were sold off to different IT companies including TCS and Wipro.
