The short answer is GCCs. India’s market is growing at 12% year-over-year, which is faster than almost any other major market globally, and a big chunk of that is being driven by the expansion of Global Capability Centers. There are now over 1,800 of them operating in India, according to Ceipal and People Matters’ GCC TalentScope India 2026. And these aren’t the back-office operations they used to be — they’re running product, R&D, and AI work. That creates real, sustained hiring demand. The companies we talk to aren’t hiring because things are good. They’re hiring because they have to.

What’s the biggest challenge GCCs are actually running into on the talent side?

Time-to-fill. It’s that simple. Ceipal and People Matters’ data shows 58% of GCCs are taking 45 days or more to fill critical roles. More than a quarter are going past 60 days. When you’re trying to build a product team or stand up an AI function, that’s not acceptable. And the problem compounds because most of these organizations — about half — don’t have the analytics to even know where the bottleneck is. They’re making decisions without the data to back them up.

Author

Subhash Potturi, Senior Vice President of Sales and Strategy, Ceipal; Professional Member, Indian Staffing Federation