FM Nirmala Sitharaman’s GCC Vision: Rapyder COO Ajay KVSSN on What It Means for Tech Partners

India has scaled GCCs.

The next challenge is making them matter more.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has urged global companies to not just invest in India, but to build from India for the world. Across technology, AI, engineering and innovation.

Read on for the policy signal, the GCC impact, and Rapyder COO Ajay KVSSN’s take on the road ahead.

What Are GCCs, and Why Is FM Sitharaman Betting on Them?

A Global Capability Centre (GCC) is an enterprise-owned hub that brings together functions such as technology, engineering, data, operations, R&D and increasingly AI to support and lead global business priorities.

That context matters after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s latest message to global businesses. At a high-level business roundtable in Chicago on August 28th, she urged investors to look at India not merely as a market to serve, but as a platform to manufacture, innovate and build for global markets.

The roundtable was organised by the Consulate General of India in Chicago in association with the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum.

Sitharaman said:

“The policy environment is increasingly focused on enabling businesses to invest, manufacture, innovate and expand.”

She also highlighted opportunities across AI, engineering, analytics, product development and advanced technology, adding that India’s Global Capability Centres are increasingly becoming “global innovation hubs.”

That is an important signal for the future of Global Capability Centres in India.

What Is Changing Inside GCCs in India Right Now?

The shift from delivery centres to strategic hubs is not just policy language.

EY’s GCC Pulse research shows that 58% of GCCs are investing in Agentic AI and 83% are scaling GenAI.

That tells us something important about AI adoption in GCCs: experimentation is giving way to enterprise-scale use.

It also reinforces the rise of GCC innovation hubs in India, where product development, R&D, analytics and AI increasingly come together.

That interpretation closely mirrors Rapyder’s COO Ajay KVSSN’s point: scale alone is no longer the differentiator. The next competitive advantage will come from how much strategic ownership a GCC can actually take on. Check out the next section to see what Ajay says.

Also, look at the following table to know the GCC shift in one view.

Why Tech Partners Matter More Now

As GCC mandates expand, AI in Global Capability Centres will depend heavily on what sits underneath it: modern infrastructure, governed data, secure environments and scalable platforms.

But the shift is not without friction. GCCs still have to solve for data governance, security, compliance and specialist talent, especially as AI moves from pilots into production. That makes strong cloud, data and operating foundations even more important.

As Ajay KVSSN, COO at Rapyder, explains:

“India’s GCC story is moving from scale to strategic ownership. The next phase will be defined by how effectively GCCs can build and scale global products, platforms and AI-led capabilities from India.

This creates a significant opportunity for technology partners like Rapyder to provide the cloud, data and AI foundations that enable GCCs to move faster from innovation to enterprise-wide impact.”

Ajay’s emphasis on “strategic ownership” is an important distinction. The goal is not simply to give GCCs more technology or move more workloads to India. It is to help them own more meaningful outcomes: global products, platforms, AI capabilities and the decisions around them.

So, technology partners are no longer simply helping GCCs “run IT”. Their role is increasingly about creating the foundation on which global innovation can actually scale.

This is where Rapyder Cloud Solutions becomes relevant. Rapyder works across cloud modernisation, data, AI, managed services, security and platform engineering: areas that directly support the kind of enterprise-wide impact Ajay is describing.

For a closer look at how that translates into GCC requirements, explore Rapyder’s cloud and technology services for Global Capability Centres.

That perspective is backed by delivery experience: Rapyder has completed 500+ cloud transformations and brings credentials including AWS Premier Tier Services Partner status, Azure Solutions Partner credentials, and Google Cloud Select Partner recognition.

For readers who want to go deeper, Rapyder’s validated qualifications outline its competencies and service delivery programs.

From “Why India?” to “What can we build from India?”

India has already demonstrated its ability to deliver technology at scale.

The next chapter is about ownership.

That is ultimately the shift both Sitharaman’s message and Ajay’s perspective point toward. India’s advantage will not be measured only by how many GCC roles or workloads move here, but by how much global IP, product ownership, AI innovation and decision-making originates here.

For GCC leaders, the question becomes more interesting:

What could your India centre own next?

And if cloud, data or AI foundations are holding that ambition back, talk to Rapyder’s cloud experts about what needs to change