Wed, 10 Sep 2025

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 Tesco to Victoria's Secret: India's booming back-offices worry about rising trade barriers

Many global firms are at an inflection point, as they face the heat of nationalism from their home countries.
India's Global Capability Centres (GCCs) Boom In 20 years, Tesco's Bengaluru campus has transformed from a back-office for IT and finance tasks to a strategic engine that handles complex tasks like data analytics and customer behavior prediction. Global multinational companies are setting up GCCs in India, which not only provide labor arbitrage but also intellectual arbitrage. The sector is growing at a rate of 14% per year and is expected to reach $100 billion by 2030. India's talent pool, particularly in AI and digital expertise, is driving the growth of GCCs. Companies like Google, Goldman Sachs, and Victoria's Secret have set up centers in India. The government has supportive policies, including individual state-level support, which has led to new GCCs springing up beyond metro cities in tier-II towns. However, challenges loom ahead, including trade barriers, data protection issues, and a growing backlash against outsourcing. The sector may need to resolve these issues to continue its growth trajectory. Industry leaders predict that companies may re-domicile their headquarters to India as digital adoption becomes central to enterprises. However, this leap will not be easy and requires urgent infrastructure development and resolving trade barriers.
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