State governments in India are rapidly advancing policies to develop Global Capability Centres, potentially creating over 1.1 million jobs and establishing more than 1,380 centres by 2029-31, signalling a new phase in the country’s offshore business landscape.
India’s state governments are racing to position Global Capability Centres as the next big engine of white-collar growth, with a CBRE report saying dedicated policies could help create about 1.18 million jobs and nearly 1,380 centres by 2029-31. The real-estate adviser said the policy drive is already being reflected in office demand, with GCCs leasing more than 123 million square feet across India’s nine largest cities between 2022 and the first half of 2026.
Anshuman Magazine, CBRE’s chairman and chief executive for India, South-East Asia, West Asia and Africa, said the pace of policy-making by state governments is unusual for India’s commercial property market. The firm said the next stage of expansion is likely to spread beyond the established hubs of Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi-NCR and Pune, as companies look at smaller cities for hub-and-spoke operating models that combine lower costs with access to engineering talent and policy support.
CBRE’s wider research points to a sector that is growing in both scale and sophistication. In a separate report, the firm said GCCs leased more than 100 million square feet of office space between 2022 and 2025, accounting for roughly 39 per cent of all leasing in 2025. Another CBRE study said India now has 1,580 GCCs employing 1.66 million professionals, underscoring the country’s position as one of the world’s main centres for offshore business operations.
The country’s advantage, according to CBRE, rests on a combination of skilled labour, cost savings, policy support and a deep technology ecosystem. But the firm said future growth will depend less on incentives alone and more on execution: better infrastructure, large-format office developments, faster regulation and stronger talent pipelines, especially outside the tier-one cities. CBRE also said the work done inside these centres is changing, with many GCCs now handling research and development, artificial intelligence, data, cybersecurity and product development rather than only back-office support.
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