InCommon Report: Tier-2 Cities Drive Next Wave of GCC Ecosystem Growth
India’s Tier-2 cities are emerging as powerful growth engines for the Global Capability Center (GCC) ecosystem, as InCommon’s GCC Tier 2 Report 2025 highlights a sharp rise in high-value, innovation-driven operations across regional hubs like Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Kochi, and Bhubaneswar. With expanding talent pools, lower costs, and strong policy support, Tier-2 locations are shaping the next decade of India’s global enterprise transformation.
Tier-2 hubs see 2 percentage point rise in GCC share; cities like Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar, and Kochi emerging as innovation clusters.
InCommon, a leading authority on Global Capability Centers (GCCs), has published its GCC Tier 2 Report 2025, spotlighting the growing momentum of GCCs in India's Tier-2 cities. The report confirms a significant shift, positioning these regional hubs as the new engines for global enterprise expansion and crucial drivers of the Indian GCC ecosystem.
Tier-2 Cities Emerge as New Growth Engines
The analysis highlights that India’s Tier-2 cities are rapidly moving beyond their secondary status, with their share of the total GCC count increasing from 5% in 2019 to 7% in 2025. India currently hosts over 1,700 active GCCs, with more than 170 strategically located across 18 Tier-2 cities, including Ahmedabad, Kochi, Jaipur, Mysuru, and Bhubaneswar. The brisk pace of nearly two new GCCs being established every week underscores robust enterprise confidence in India's expanding regional markets.
This regionalization is being fueled by key states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat, which are implementing targeted policies and infrastructure upgrades to promote deeper operational bases away from traditional metro hubs.
Hosting High-Value, Technology-Driven GCCs
Crucially, Tier-2 hubs are not just absorbing low-end operations; they are increasingly hosting high-value, technology-driven GCCs. These centres focus on critical areas such as AI and data engineering, software and platform development, product R&D, cloud services, and cybersecurity.
Piyush Kedia, Co-founder and CEO of InCommon, emphasized the strategic advantages: "Tier-2 hubs are no longer secondary options as they are emerging as core innovation ecosystems for digital engineering and R&D. With a 25% lower cost base, 20-30% lower attrition, and a rapidly expanding STEM talent pool, these cities are enabling organisations to scale faster while driving inclusive economic growth.”
Regional Strengths and Future Trajectory
The report details distinct regional strengths, reinforcing the value proposition of these locations. Bhubaneswar and Vadodara are establishing themselves as semiconductor and R&D hubs, while Kochi and Warangal are specializing in digital, cloud, and fintech engineering. Meanwhile, Coimbatore, Indore, and Ahmedabad are consolidating their positions as multi-sector innovation clusters, supported by strong academic linkages.
The InCommon GCC Tier 2 Report 2025 ultimately concludes that India’s Tier-2 cities are successfully following the Tier-1 growth trajectory. Armed with stronger policy backing and lessons learned from the first wave of expansion, this evolution is shaping a more balanced, resilient, and regionally inclusive GCC landscape set to define the next decade of India’s enterprise transformation and global enterprise expansion.
