For the uninitiated, GCC stands for Global Capability Center<\/em>. It’s a delivery unit of a foreign company in India. Fully owned by the parent company, a GCC functions as its extended arm and augments its capacity by carrying out activities that would otherwise be performed at the foreign headquarters. A GCC is structured as a cost center of the foreign company and supplies its entire work product to its foreign principal. Set up in 1985, Texas Instruments<\/em> is India’s first GCC. GCCs span many industries including Aerospace, BFSI, Manufacturing, Retail, and Tech. Today, there are nearly 1,700 GCCs in India e.g. Boeing<\/em>, Exxon Mobil<\/em>, JP Morgan Chase<\/em>, MasterCard<\/em>,\u00a0Mercedes-Benz<\/em>, Microsoft<\/em>, Oracle<\/em>, Salesforce<\/em>, Target<\/em>, Walmart<\/em>. GCC is not to be confused with the Indian subsidiaries of foreign companies that sell in the Indian market or Offshore Delivery Centers<\/em> in Indian IT Services companies that are dedicated to their foreign customers.<\/p>\n The aforementioned article is full of dubious statements. Let me rebut them one by one.<\/p>\n Statement: An important question is whether research performed in India accumulates as an Indian asset.<\/em><\/p>\n Rebuttal<\/strong>: This is a silly question – it’s like asking whether Ram’s house belongs to Shyam. Obviously it doesn’t. Research is owned by the entity that funds it. Its location has nothing to do with it. R&D carried out by GCCs is funded by the foreign principal that owns the GCC. So the research belongs to the foreign principal. There’s no question of it being an “Indian asset” – or even “American asset”, for that matter. It’s the asset of the private sector American company that pays for it.<\/p>\n The article also misses that the R&D work done in GCCs does not stop Indian companies from pursuing R&D of their own. If they don’t, that should say something about their capabilities and \/ or priorities (see footnote 1<\/em>).<\/p>\n Statement: Owned research creates the asset that finances the next round of research. Both are growth. Only one compounds.<\/em><\/p>\n Rebuttal<\/strong>: This is a very naive take and totally betrays the reality that R&D has a very low conversion rate from research to commercial success. A majority of R&D output is written off. Let alone not driving growth, most R&D spend goes on the loss side of a company’s P&L.<\/p>\n Statement: Dadabhai Naoroji described the huge unilateral transfer under British colonial rule of India\u2019s resources and capital to Britain, without any equivalent economic, commercial or material compensation, as a \u2018drain of wealth\u2019.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Rebuttal<\/strong>: This analogy is utter nonsense. The GCC industry drives a good chunk of the growth of the Indian commercial real estate (CRE) industry. GCCs pay above-market wages to their Indian workers. Their employees’ consumption trickles down to food, housing, entertainment, quick commerce, wellness, beauty, and other downstream industries.<\/p>\n I could go on and on but my drift should be clear: GCC is creator of wealth, it’s not a ‘drain of wealth’.<\/p>\n Statement: Core product definition remains guarded at HQs.<\/em><\/p>\n Rebuttal<\/strong>: Of course it is. The HQ has every right to decide what gets done in HQ versus GCC. Product definition is not the birthright of GCCs. If HQs want, they can involve GCCs in product definition. If they don’t, that should say something about the GCC’s capabilities (see footnote 2<\/em>). But, either way, it’s the HQ’s decision. While on the subject, GCCs also lack independent budget and spending authority.<\/p>\n Overall the article reeks of envy, conflates private property with public entitlement, and has severe commie vibes. Contary to what its title says, the article hints at stealing someone else’s goals and subtly advocates the “Regulate Everything, Invent Nothing, Fine Everybody” EU approach.<\/p>\n To play footloose with the author’s capital markets lingo, we must short this article!<\/p>\n Thanks and Regards.<\/p>\n KETHARAMAN SWAMINATHAN FOOTNOTE(S):<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n A condensed version of the above post was not published by Economic Times<\/em> on 18 July 2026.<\/p>\n In case the aforementioned article is paywalled, cf.<\/em> following exhibit.<\/p>\n From: Ketharaman Swaminathan To: editet@timesofindia.com Subject: Time to Score Own Goals Dear Editor: This has reference to the op-ed entitled\u00a0Time to Score Own Goals by Chandrika Soyantar in today’s\u00a0Economic Times about GCCs and the nature of R&D work carried out at them. For the uninitiated, GCC stands for Global Capability Center. It’s a delivery unit … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":14566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[111,109,112,110],"class_list":["post-14562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-it-marketing","category-mandatory-category","tag-eou","tag-gcc","tag-odc","tag-rd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14562"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14730,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14562\/revisions\/14730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GCC-INDIA-POSITION-fi.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/skr-fake-signature-cropped.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n17 July 2026<\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GLENMARK-ORIGINAL-DRUGS-NOT-GENERICS-ET-22JUL2026.jpg\")
<\/a>Only that many Indian companies do R&D e.g. Glenmark<\/em><\/strong>. According to its CEO, the pharma major “expects innovative products to account for nearly 70% of its revenue over the next five-six years, marking a sharp shift from its traditional generics-led model as decades of investment in drug discovery begins to pay off”.<\/li>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SAP-INDIA-JOULE-GCC-AI-BUSINESS-LLM-DATA-CONSENT-ET-07NOV2024.jpg\")
<\/a>This is simply not true. Many foreign principals have publicly stated that their GCCs in India have been actively involved in defining many new products e.g. SAP Joule<\/strong><\/a><\/em>. In an interview with Economic Times<\/em> in November 2024, the ERP major’s CEO noted that Joule<\/em> (and the company’s foundational AI models) are primarily developed in SAP Labs India<\/em> and averred that India handles core work including architecture, development, performance, security, and product ownership – not just execution.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/unpublished-letter-to-editor-graphic.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ET-OPED-17JUL2026-GCC-RD-Time-to-Score-Own-Goals-500W.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"