India’s International Functionality Centres (GCCs) should not simply low-cost assist in a brand new kind, however are areas the place leading edge work is happening, Chief Financial Adviser (CEA) V. Anantha Nageswaran mentioned on Thursday (July 9, 2026). As such, these GCC jobs are additionally at a comparatively decrease threat of being changed by Synthetic Intelligence (AI), he added.
Nevertheless, the CEA did warn in opposition to the hazards of complacency, saying that different international locations are already copying India’s mannequin.
“It’s leading edge and more and more so,” Mr. Nageswaran mentioned whereas talking at a session throughout the Confederation of Indian Trade’s (CII) GCC Enterprise Summit.
“International banks run their threat methods and buying and selling platforms in Mumbai and Bangalore and elsewhere as nicely, automotive makers design their autos’ embedded methods from Chennai and Pune, semiconductor companies perform chip design, pharmaceutical firms run scientific analytics right here, and client companies construct and personal total digital merchandise right here in India,” he added.
Mr. Nagesawaran mentioned that the mental property created in these facilities is actual, with the patents being filed right here, the merchandise shipped from India and international roles more and more held by folks sitting in India.
The specter of AI
The CEA additionally sought to reply whether or not these GCCs can be underneath risk from the rise of AI and would these GCC jobs be automated quickly.
“A part of the mannequin is certainly uncovered,” Mr. Nageswaran conceded. “The work that was routine, repetitive and rule sure is precisely the work that AI does most simply and most cheaply as nicely. If a centre’s worth rests solely on doing easy duties at low value, then the worth is underneath actual risk. We should always not faux in any other case.”
Nevertheless, he additionally mentioned that this isn’t the place most Indian centres are at this time, and that this was not the course through which they’re headed.
“Synthetic intelligence doesn’t construct, deploy or govern itself,” Mr. Nageswaran defined. “Somebody has to design these methods, prepare them, check them, appropriate them and maintain them to account. Somebody has to determine the place they need to be used and the place they need to not be used.”
“Somebody has to hold the duty after they fail,” he added. “And that work is increasing and never shrinking. And a big and rising share of this sort of work is being carried out in India.”
No time for complacency
The CEA, nevertheless, cautioned in opposition to complacency, saying that standing nonetheless meant permitting others to catch up.
“Different international locations are watching us and copying us,” he asserted. “Our prices are rising. In some expertise, our expertise is already scarce, so indispensability will not be a title that India can maintain on to perpetually.”
He added that the transfer from value centres to functionality centres, and from execution to innovation needs to be made by companies and by folks, with the federal government appearing as a assist.
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“Skilling is the clearest case,” Mr. Nageswaran mentioned. “We produce a really giant variety of graduates every year. We don’t but produce sufficient of those that are prepared on day one. By some estimates, fewer than half of them are prepared for the job on the day they arrive.”
“Closing that hole means universities, business and the federal government working collectively, not one after the opposite, however on the similar time,” he mentioned.
He additional mentioned that the place India at the moment holds within the international functionality centre market was one which it has to maintain incomes, again and again.
“The second we consider we’ve arrived is the second others start to catch up,” he mentioned. “So allow us to not have fun too early. Allow us to deal with this success not as a ending line, however as a basis or a milestone.”
Printed – July 09, 2026 12:27 pm IST