Maharashtra sets out plan to outpace southern states in GCC investments

“We want to be the number one state for GCCs over the next three years,” said Kaustubh Dhavse, chief adviser on investments and strategy to the chief minister.

GCCs serve as multifunctional hubs for global companies, bringing together talent across technology, finance, research and development, sales and human resources.

Dhavse said the state’s new policy offers some of the most generous incentives in India, spanning rental and capital subsidies, support for employment and salaries, and loan assistance. Maharashtra has also extended land subsidies to the IT sector - a benefit previously reserved for other industries. “Earlier, while we offered land subsidies to other sectors, the IT sector was not part of it, as it was anyway a flourishing, high-margin industry,” he said.

In comparison to Maharashtra’s 750 plus, Karnataka currently has over 900 GCCs, Telangana has more than 396 GCCs, and Delhi-NCR has about 475 GCCs.

“Maharashtra was always the leader in the IT services space. Later due to infrastructural issues, growing costs of real estate and cities like Bengaluru and Hyderabad coming up with tech talent, we lost some of it,” he admitted.

Building country’s first GCC City

The Maharashtra government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Accenture-backed GCC establishment and management firm ANSR in October to set up the GCC City in Navi Mumbai. Under the agreement, ANSR will conceptualize, design, and invest in developing the GCC City.

Founded in 2004 by Lalit Ahuja and Vikram Ahuja, ANSR is the leading GCC establishment company in the country working with over 60 MNCs. While its parent company ANSR Inc holds a majority stake, it is also backed by IT services giant Accenture, Accel Partners, ServiceNow, HDFC Bank, ServiceNow, Sistema Asia Fund, and Evolvence India Fund.

ANSR provides advisory, talent acquisition, workspace design and management, and business operations services to multinationals looking to set up offices in India.

“A new GCC is being set up in Maharashtra almost every day. In the GCC City, I expect the first 10-15 GCCs going live hopefully by March-April…Our ability would be to house around 60 to 100 GCCs in the GCC City. That's what our goal would be over a period of time,” Vikram Ahuja, Co-founder, ANSR said.

Ahuja said the first phase will have a mix of large and mid-sized GCCs coming from sectors including BFSI, retail, logistics and pharma. He, however, did not disclose the names of the specific companies who are entering.

He added that the Maharashtra government is already in talks with several multinationals to close on their GCC investment plans.

While Dhavse didn’t disclose the names of the MNCs setting up GCCs in Navi Mumbai or the estimated number of GCCs that would come up here, he ensured that GCCs expand very fast depending on the demand.

“It will be difficult to say how many GCCs we can accommodate within the GCC City at this point. Because similar to the IT/ BPO businesses, GCCs may start small with 150 people, but going by the demand they can ramp up quickly. They can easily go from 150 people to 1,000 in two years,” he explained.

He added, “So, we have to work around that kind of expectations…Ultimately, GCCs don’t require a lot of investment to set up. They’ll require some machineries, computers and office spaces. They can start with an investment of Rs 50-100 crores for a GCC of 100 plus people.”

Also read: Karnataka to set up GCC City in Bengaluru; will unveil new IT policy next year

Navi Mumbai’s strategic advantage

Navi Mumbai is the connecting link between the Mumbai-Pune twin city corridors. Additionally, it is central to major existing and upcoming infrastructure projects, including Navi Mumbai International Airport, Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) and the Metro and wider road network.

“The rentals here at Navi Mumbai are cheaper than other major GCC hubs in the country, including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad. This makes Navi Mumbai an ideal location for multinationals seeking to establish cost-efficient operations,” said Peush Jain, Managing Director - Corporate Leasing & Advisory, at property consultancy ANAROCK Group.

Jain added, “There is a strong talent ecosystem in and around Navi Mumbai, and the growing tech and BFSI clusters at Airoli-Ghansoli make it easier for further scaling the GCC operations across IT, finance, analytics, AI/ML, and engineering R&D.”

Ahuja said that the GCC City will have a huge focus on bringing “market leading companies” to establish their GCCS.

“In fact as we speak we already have a bunch of early adopters identified that are going to be the initial founding members of the GCC City,” he said.

Maharashtra’s GCC Policy 2025

The Maharashtra government released its GCC Policy 2025 on September 30, aimed at providing financial support and operational ease attract GCC investments.

Ahuja believes that the timing is perfect, as the state’s GCC policy comes after Karnataka and Telangana’s policies, letting the government work through a more competitive policy.

The core objectives of the GCC Policy 2025, include making Maharashtra the global destination for GCCs, by adding 400 new GCCs by FY2023. This will create 400,000 high-skilled jobs.

Dhavse shared, “We estimate that for every Rs 1 crore of investment that comes in, there will be a direct and an indirect job created in the state. And, we have a target to add 400,000 jobs by 2030; that gives an approximate sense of the investment expected.”

The five-year GCC plan (starting from November 3) also involves propelling Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities such as Nashik, Nagpur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (erstwhile Aurangabad) into the global GCC landscape.

Additionally, the state will be developing world-class business districts and a robust Digital Databank to map talent, resources, and connectivity, to let new GCCs identify optimal locations.

Eligibility for financial subsidiaries start from a minimum of Rs 50 crores investment or 100 employees to set up a small GCC and this will extend up to an investment of over Rs 750 crores and 1,000 employees, that will be classified as ‘ultra mega’ sized GCCs.

The eligible companies can choose a 20 per cent capital subsidy or 10–20 per cent rental subsidy for five years. Additional incentives include payroll subsidy, 5 per cent interest subsidy on term loans and reduced power tariffs for GCC operations, and special incentives for research and development.

“The birth of GCCs actually first happened in Maharashtra many years ago. It's now catching up to everything that's going on,” Ahuja said.

Nashik, Nagpur are the new destinations

Dhavse believes that the Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities will see “domain specific ecosystems” being created, where the government will be able to “offer stronger cost advantages” as well.

“We have created hubs in Tier-2 and 3 cities including Nagpur, Thane, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad), and Nashik. These cities already have some existing IT play, and engineering colleges as well…A majority of the country’s automotive GCCs are already in Pune. Now we are seeing companies in this space setting up manufacturing facilities and GCCs in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar,” he said.

For instance, JSW, Ather, Toyota have plans to set up manufacturing facilities in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Toyota Kirloskar is investing Rs 30,000 crores and has already started constructing its plant in the city, second largest after Hosur plant, he shared.

In Nagpur, the government is seeing solar cell design and manufacturing companies coming up.

ANAROCK’s Jain said that Nagpur also has strong logistics, multimodal connectivity with cities across the country (via airport, rail and highway) and is well-positioned for GCCs that cater to logistics, supply chains and analytics and supporting sectors like defence and infrastructure.

Nashik, meanwhile, boasts of a growing base of industrial parks. Its proximity to Mumbai with ample talent and lower cost base (compared to Mumbai) makes it favourable for various sectors including pharma, analytics, support services, etc.

According to ANSR’s Ahuja, as of now, the Mumbai-Pune corridor will get about 60 per cent of the new GCC establishments, while remaining 40 per cent growth will come in the Tier-2 cities.

GCCs are going plus one

While Maharashtra has the country’s financial capital Mumbai -- Ahuja said -- not all of the GCC investments are coming to the city anytime soon as Bengaluru and Hyderabad will continue to command market share with the availability of skilled tech talent and lower real estate costs. Yet, the competition will intensify now.

Many MNCs are also now shifting to a ‘plus one’ strategy, having a main large GCC in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and then another in tier-2 and tier-3 cities like Kochi, Trivandrum.

“There is a huge push in the GCC space coming in for Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets because of the growth in mid-market demand coming in. We have set up GCCs in cities like Kochi, Trivandrum, and Ahmedabad. This is partially driven by the fact that mid-market companies have much smaller talent requirements, like 50-150 employees,” Ahuja said.

He added, “Certain bigger cities are also saturating in growth. Companies will now go for +1 strategy, where they will have a GCC in Bengaluru and might have a GCC in another city.

Also read: Infra, talent, tax breaks: What Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu want from Centre’s Tier-II GCC policy