Hyderabad wins 40% of new GCCs, now Bengaluru fights back
BENGALURU, INDIA — Hyderabad captured 40% of all new GCCs established in India over the past three years — 64 of 164 new centers in the last 30 months — against Bengaluru’s 33% share, as rising operational costs and talent saturation begin redirecting greenfield investment to Telangana.
Karnataka’s response is a structural pivot: stop competing for new entrants, and invest government resources in helping the 860-plus GCCs already operating in the state scale faster.
Karnataka bets on GCC depth, signs KDEM-Zyoin talent intelligence partnership
The Karnataka Digital Economy Mission signed a memorandum of understanding with Zyoin Group — an AI-augmented talent advisory and recruitment firm — targeting operational readiness, talent intelligence, and ecosystem integration for GCCs already operating in Karnataka, with specific focus on tier-2 clusters in Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubballi-Dharwad-Belagavi, and Kalaburgi.
The KDEM-Zyoin partnership marks a structural shift in Karnataka’s competitive posture — from lead market attracting new GCCs to anchor market building the ones it already has, a transition that requires different policy tools and different success metrics than greenfield recruitment.
Tier-2 expansion faces a maturity challenge: Mysuru and Mangaluru currently lack the senior leadership talent and specialized depth available in Bengaluru’s established ecosystem — gaps Zyoin’s talent intelligence and skill-gap analysis is specifically tasked to address.
“Our primary focus is on helping existing GCCs scale faster, innovate more, and access the right talent, innovation ecosystem, and industry networks needed for long-term growth,” said Sanjeev Kumar Gupta, CEO, Karnataka Digital Economy Mission.
Hyderabad’s greenfield share reflects India’s expansion, not Bengaluru’s decline
Bengaluru still leads India with more than 860 GCC concentration in the country — but Xpheno’s ‘Telangana: The Next-Gen GCC Powerhouse’ report finds Hyderabad now hosts approximately 20% of India’s GCCs and is capturing a disproportionate share of new greenfield investments.
Rising operational costs, infrastructure constraints, and talent saturation are influencing new entrant location decisions, with companies increasingly choosing Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai for greenfield builds due to deeper leadership pipelines and lower cost thresholds.
Many GCCs are also adopting a multi-city strategy — distributing capabilities across locations based on each city’s strengths rather than concentrating in a single hub, a trend that blunts the zero-sum framing of inter-city competition.
India’s GCC market is growing fast enough that Hyderabad’s greenfield gains and Bengaluru’s legacy depth can coexist — the contest is for incremental share of new investments, not displacement of the incumbent leader.
“I don’t see this as Bengaluru losing to Hyderabad. India’s GCC ecosystem is growing rapidly, and multiple cities are benefiting from that growth,” said Anuj Agrawal, Founder and CEO, Zyoin Group.
For BPO and offshore IT operators, Karnataka’s pivot from GCC attraction to GCC scaling signals a maturing market where operational depth — not new investment headlines — is becoming the primary competitive metric.
States that can demonstrate scalable talent infrastructure and ecosystem integration for existing centers will increasingly drive enterprise expansion decisions beyond initial site selection.
