India GCC decision library
Clear answers before you commit to an India GCC.
Most GCC conversations become complicated too early. We start with the questions a board, CFO and operating sponsor actually need answered: cost, control, city, structure, time and risk.
The decisions
Six questions that shape almost everything after.
Read the full library or begin with the issue creating the most disagreement inside your team.
What will it cost?
A planning range built from team size, city, workspace and operating model — not a suspiciously precise headline number.
Read the guide →How long will it take?
The workstreams that can run together, the ones that cannot, and the decisions that usually create delay.
Read the guide →Which city fits the mandate?
Gurugram, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune compared by talent shape, leadership depth, cost pressure and operating character.
Read the guide →What should own the operation?
Private company, managed model or build-operate-transfer — with a clear view of control, speed and reversibility.
Read the guide →What can go wrong structurally?
Entity, FEMA, transfer pricing, GST and governance questions to settle before money or people begin moving.
Read the guide →Are incentives worth pursuing?
A practical screen for state support: eligibility, timing, documentation and whether the benefit is worth the operating constraint.
Read the guide →
A more useful starting point
Do not ask “How do we set up a GCC?” until you know what the centre must become.
A 40-person finance operation, a 300-person product engineering centre and a regulated analytics hub may all be called GCCs. They should not share the same plan.
- 1Define the mandate
Work, ownership, decision rights and the expected value beyond labour arbitrage.
- 2Choose the control model
Owned, managed or transitional — then make governance fit the choice.
- 3Design the economics
Build the cost stack, intercompany model and scale assumptions together.
Planning desk
Put a first number and a first sequence on the table.
Use the cost estimator and board discussion brief to put sharper assumptions into the next leadership conversation.
Start where the uncertainty is
Cost, city, control or compliance?
There is no correct first page. There is only the question your leadership team has not yet answered honestly.