Hyderabad: With Telangana’s global capability centre (GCC) ecosystem gaining momentum and maturity, the GCC policy being drafted by the state govt is expected to focus less on routine incentives and more on attracting innovation-led, high-value companies. Attempts will be made to draw in emerging domains such as spacetech, aerospace and defence, semiconductors, AI, quantum and advanced life sciences.The govt is studying GCC policies of Karnataka and Maharashtra, whose hubs, Bengaluru and Pune, compete with Hyderabad. The Telangana govt is considering targeted support for breakthrough sectors rather than broad-based sops and subsidies.A senior official in the IT & industries department said incentives, if offered, would be reserved for investments capable of creating entirely new ecosystems. These include frontier space technology, next-generation semiconductor design, AI model development, quantum, aerospace and defence, and advanced life sciences.“Say, if a giant like SpaceX or Nvidia decides to put up their GCC here, that will drive pathbreaking technologies capable of a cascading effect on brand Hyderabad and the entire ecosystem; we would be open to offering incentives,” he said. “We want to position Hyderabad as a cross-domain hub, as against Bengaluru’s enterprise R&D concentration, Chennai’s automotive and engineering strengths, and Pune’s auto, engineering and BFSI base.”Officials said Hyderabad’s advantage lies in talent spread across life sciences, aerospace, defence, space technology, BFSI, retail, hospitality, FMCG, utilities and advanced digital engineering. GCCs in the city are increasingly building products and platforms instead of functioning only as traditional software delivery units.The proposed policy will also focus on coaxing GCCs to set up shop in Tier-2 centres such as Warangal, Adilabad, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, among others.Telangana has already crossed the 500 GCC-mark, adding the highest number in the country — 75 — in FY26. The state is targeting 100 new GCCs in FY27, of which around 55 have already opened shop in Hyderabad. According to Telangana govt estimates, the state attracted Rs 1.43 lakh crore in new investments last year through 75 GCCs, creating 75,000 direct and 2.25 lakh indirect jobs. The GCC sector generated Rs 3.9 lakh crore in economic output.IT & industries minister D Sridhar Babu said Hyderabad’s GCC growth is being driven by “infrastructure, talent, ecosystem and innovation.” Companies, he said, are choosing the city “not just for scale, but to build high-value global capabilities.”“Our ambition is to add 100 more GCCs, creating 1 lakh direct and 3 lakh indirect jobs,” Sridhar Babu said. “We will continue to work closely with global investors and build on what makes Hyderabad uniquely competitive. At the same time, we will keep investing ahead of the curve in emerging sectors and new areas of innovation.”Sai Krishna, IT adviser, Telangana govt, said the govt was tracking the quality and complexity of work as closely as the number of centres. “For us, the real measure of success is not just the number of innovation centres. It is the depth of innovation they bring to the city. We will continue to expand into new domains and build differentiated capabilities, strengthening our Innovation complexity index and positioning ourselves to create value at the frontier of innovation.”Officials said GCC growth is also a response to automation-led disruption in traditional IT services. Telangana currently estimates GCC employment in Hyderabad at about 4 lakh.
