GCC Summit 2025: Uncovering how Indian GCCs are driving global growth

India’s Global Capability Centres are rapidly evolving from cost-saving back office units to strategic partners in global tech innovation, product development and business transformation. Leveraging India’s deep pool of talent, leadership and tech capabilities has made them significant players in reshaping global technology landscapes.

India’s GCC capabilities were at the heart of a panel discussion at YourStory Media’s exclusive leadership conference, GCC Summit, co-powered by Google Cloud and Snowflake, on June 13, 2025.

A panel discussion, titled ‘Tech Without Borders: How GCCs Are Building for the World, from India’, featured top leaders from various fields, including Navin Bishnoi, India Country Manager & AVP Central Engineering, Marvell India; Paranth Thiruvengadam, Head of Engineering & India Site Leader, Atlassian; Sujit Cheruvatath, Director, Snowflake; Sudhakaran Selvaraj, Delivery Head - Data Engineering and Data Science at Ecolab Digital Center; Praveen Mysore, VP, Global Product Technology and Head of India Tech Hub, Lululemon; and moderator Sangeeta Bavi, Chief Operating Officer, YourStory Media. 

Building a one-stop development ecosystem for Indian GCCs

Navin Bishnoi, India Country Manager & AVP Central Engineering, Marvell India, discussed the unique advantages of building products in India for the world. Marvell Technology, an American semiconductor company, recently expanded its presence in India by setting up Design Centers in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Bishnoi spotlighted the unique talent pool in India, where engineers of all disciplines come together, not only to create, design and manufacture the chip but also to create an end-to-end development ecosystem - one that can take care of documentation, field support, project management, validation, lab work, software development and more.

The second advantage of building in India is a thriving market for semiconductors, both in terms of growth and consumption. “We began to map the developments we were doing for the world in India. We had an India use case for global products,” he said. 

Creating an engineering culture spanning countries

One of the critical aspects of success for organisational success, anywhere in the world, is developing a strong engineering culture. It impacts everything, from innovation and product quality to employee satisfaction. 

Atlassian, an Australian-American software company, is known for creating a culture of collaboration, continuous improvement and engineer empowerment. When Paranth Thiruvengadam, Head of Engineering & India Site Leader, Atlassian was asked about how this culture translates across borders, he shared that Atlassian has a strong internal value-based system that begins at the moment of hiring. If a candidate is unable to clear the values portion of the interview cycle, it is unlikely that Atlassian will go forward with them.

Thiruvengadam said one of the values at Atlassian is OCNB (Open Company, No Bullshit), a way for employees to share critical and valuable feedback, without undue negativity. Feedback is shared openly, products are built with heart, and triumphs are celebrated through town hall meetings. “These values are a part of our everyday conversations. I have been at Atlassian for the last year and a half, and I began to use these values in every conversation in three months. That’s how ingrained they are,” he shared. 

What’s in a name: the boon and bane of GCCs

The GCCs of today bear little resemblance to the backend MNC offices of the last decade. They now bear significant responsibility, actively solving global problems.

Sudhakaran Selvaraj, Delivery Head - Data Engineering and Data Science, Ecolab Digital Center, spoke about how Ecolab has contributed to water conservation efforts in Bangalore, saving nearly 1.8 years of water consumption for all citizens. He also raised an intriguing point about the term ‘GCCs’ and its representation to the head office, saying “When we talk to our global counterparts, they ask us what the term GCC means? It seems almost like an allegation to use that we are trying to distance ourselves from the global organisation. So we made a very conscious effort globally, as well as in India, saying we will call ourselves a global location, instead of a GCC,” he says.

Selvaraj added that the center here is one of the company's locations, and a lot of ownership and technical leverage has shifted from other locations to the office in India. “The teams here work globally, and that’s why we prefer the term global location.”

Bridging the knowledge gap between borders

Knowledge transfers between MNC headquarters and GCCs is an important process that can directly contribute to strategic value and success. The process ensures GCCs are not mere offshore execution hubs, but value-driven partners of the parent company.

Lululemon, a premium, high-end athletic apparel brand, was largely unknown in India when it first entered the market. Bridging the gap and bringing the knowledge, culture and best practices between international engineering teams and the Indian team was challenging.

Praveen Mysore, VP, Global Product Technology & Head of India Tech Hub, Lululemon, shared that the abundance of talent in India made the transfer possible. In the Seattle and Vancouver markets, acquiring the right kind of talent was a battle, especially with the strong presence of companies such as Snowflake and Google.

India represented a deep pool of talent for Lululemon, allowing it to design programs, understand the impact of business, brand identity and much more. Without any stores, the brand had to facilitate knowledge transfer through training programs, informative sessions, and exchange to headquarters to visit stores and gain immersive experiences. It also brought in the right supply chain partners, product partners and other relevant organizations to manage go-to-market initiatives to conduct workshops for the Indian workforce.

“We didn’t have the problem of sharing a heavy legacy. But our capabilities were still manually run. So, we had to plan how to leapfrog and implement new systems to unlock that value. Thanks to the phenomenal teams in Bangalore we have been able to build those capabilities,” he shared. 

Data: the fuel for GCC growth

Data is critical to the operations and value of GCCs, transforming them into innovation hubs and decision-making powerhouses. Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy had announced in 2024 that the company is planning to staff a large team in India to work with GCCs.

Sujit Cheruvatath, Director, Snowflake, spoke about how Snowflake will help organisations accelerate GCC growth in India. “There are concepts being developed here. Teams building things from scratch. From Snowflake’s perspective, we see the data analytics and AI ecosystem absolutely flourishing. We are going to make serious investments in this - not just in the current workforce but also in the future.”

Cheruvatath added that Snowflake will partner with various industry stakeholders on critical initiatives to benefit India’s GCC ecosystem. “We are extremely bullish about the GCC ecosystem in India. We believe it will reach a stage where there will be developments in India, which the rest of the world will have to catch up with. That’s where our mind is, and that’s where our money is” he said.