India has 1,900+ Global Capability Centres employing more than 2.1 million people and contributing over $75 billion to the economy in FY2025 — roughly 1.5% of national GDP. Six metros hold more than 90% of it.
That concentration is the entire business case for what comes next. Bengaluru alone accounts for 30% of India’s GCCs and 34% of GCC talent. Hyderabad adds another 19% and 18%. Attrition, wage inflation and talent saturation in those markets have made a distributed footprint less a cost play than a risk-management one.
So enterprises are looking down the list. A new report from ANSR — Emerging Cities: India’s Next Frontier for GCC Expansion 2026 — maps 14 non-metro locations and assesses each on talent, infrastructure, business environment and liveability. It is the most granular public dataset on Tier-2 GCC readiness currently available.
But it stops short of ranking them. So we did.
The number that frames everything
Emerging cities are expanding at nearly 11% CAGR — comfortably ahead of the metros. The absolute base, though, is small:
- 220+ GCC units now operate in emerging Tier-2/3 cities
- 86,000+ people are employed in them
- Together, Tier-2 accounts for roughly 6% of India’s GCC count and 5% of its GCC talent
Put differently: after a decade of “Tier-2 is the future” commentary, 19 out of every 20 GCC jobs in India are still in a metro. The growth rate is real. The share is not yet.
That gap is the opportunity ANSR is pointing at — and the risk any enterprise moving first has to price in. Ecosystem depth, senior-hire availability and vendor maturity all lag the headline CAGR.
How we ranked the 14 cities
ANSR publishes a five-pillar radar chart per city but no league table. We built one from the report’s own published figures, weighted as follows:
- Talent depth — 35%. Size of the experienced technology workforce. The single hardest thing to manufacture.
- Talent pipeline — 20%. Annual fresh graduates plus STEM graduates.
- Cost advantage — 20%. Reported cost-of-living saving versus Tier-1 metros.
- Ecosystem maturity — 15%. Existing GCC and IT-services presence. Established / Emerging / Early.
- Policy & ease of doing business — 10%. State BARP rating and dedicated GCC policy.
Every input is drawn from the ANSR report. The weighting is ours, and it deliberately favours cities that can staff a centre now over cities that will be able to later.
The ranking
| # | City | State | Experienced tech talent | Cost saving vs Tier-1 | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Coimbatore | Tamil Nadu | 300K+ | 20–25% | 85.7 |
| 2 | GIFT City / Ahmedabad | Gujarat | 310K+ | 15–20% | 74.3 |
| 3 | Jaipur | Rajasthan | 180K+ | 25–30% | 58.9 |
| 4 | Indore | Madhya Pradesh | 150K+ | 25–30% | 55.9 |
| 5 | Navi Mumbai | Maharashtra | 55K+ | 10–20% | 55.4 |
| 6 | Lucknow | Uttar Pradesh | 160K+ | 30–35% | 54.4 |
| 7 | Kochi | Kerala | 75K+ | ~20% | 54.3 |
| 8 | Thiruvananthapuram | Kerala | 55K+ | ~25% | 53.8 |
| 9 | Mangalore | Karnataka | 30K+ | 20–25% | 45.0 |
| 10 | Mysuru | Karnataka | 35K+ | 20–25% | 44.7 |
| 11 | Visakhapatnam | Andhra Pradesh | 55K+ | 20–25% | 43.6 |
| 12 | Bhopal | Madhya Pradesh | 55K+ | 30–35% | 41.7 |
| 13 | Bhubaneswar | Odisha | 75K+ | 20–25% | 39.8 |
| 14 | Warangal | Telangana | 40K+ | 30–35% | 36.1 |
Tier 1 — Ready now
- Coimbatore (85.7) is the only city that scores in the top three on both talent and ecosystem. It has 300,000+ experienced tech professionals, 100+ engineering institutes, 100K fresh graduates a year, and 50+ GCCs already operating. Costs run 20–25% below Tier-1. Tamil Nadu rates “Achiever” on the Business Reforms Action Plan and is building a dedicated “GCC One” single-window mechanism.
Its real differentiator is industrial adjacency: 323,000+ MSMEs, a defence corridor, and an EV cluster. For engineering R&D, supply-chain analytics and Industry 4.0 mandates, no other emerging city offers the same manufacturing context. TIDEL Park, ELCOT SEZ and the proposed 73 km Kovai Metro round out the infrastructure story.
- GIFT City / Ahmedabad (74.3) has the largest experienced talent pool on the list — 310,000+ — and something no other city can replicate: India’s only fully operational International Financial Services Centre. The 900-acre hub operates under IFSCA with internationally benchmarked norms.
The incentive stack is the most aggressive in the report: 100% tax exemption on income for 20 years, EPF reimbursement for five years (100% for female hires, 75% for male), stamp duty and registration reimbursement, and a one-time payment of 50% of one month’s CTC for new local hires. Cost of living runs 15–20% lower than Tier-1 — the smallest discount on the list, which is the trade-off for the regulatory premium.
If your mandate is treasury, fund operations, RegTech, quantitative finance or AI-enabled finance, GIFT City is not competing with the other 13. It is competing with Dublin and Singapore.
Tier 2 — Scaling bets
- Jaipur (58.9) pairs a 180,000-strong tech workforce with 25–30% cost savings and NCR proximity via the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. Mahindra World City SEZ is expanding from ~600 hectares toward 3,000. Rajasthan rates “Fast Mover” on BARP and its GCC Policy 2025–30 reimburses 50% of employer EPF and ESI contributions for seven years. 15+ GCCs, a unicorn-producing startup base (DealShare, CarDekho), and strong BFSI pull.
- Indore (55.9) is the only Tier-2 city in India with both an IIT and an IIM. That dual-institution advantage, plus 150,000 experienced professionals weighted toward BPM and shared services, makes it Central India’s most credible analytics and business-operations hub. MP’s GCC Policy 2025–30 offers rent support up to ₹3 crore (₹10 crore for co-working), 6% interest assistance on term loans to ₹5 crore, and a three-year payroll subsidy tapering 50/30/20%. India’s Cleanest City for multiple consecutive years — a genuine recruitment asset.
- Navi Mumbai (55.4) ranks low on experienced local talent (55,000+) and offers the smallest cost saving of any city here (10–20%). It ranks fifth anyway on the strength of the largest graduate pipeline in the report — 150,000 fresh and 50,000 STEM graduates a year via the Mumbai Metropolitan Region — plus 40+ operational GCCs, direct BFSI leadership access, the Atal Setu, an airport operational from 2025, and an $11 billion Innovation City pipeline. Lowest execution risk on the list; smallest arbitrage.
- Lucknow (54.4) offers the sharpest cost economics of any large-talent city: 160,000 experienced professionals at 30–35% below Tier-1. UP’s GCC Policy carries a 25% capital subsidy capped at ₹10 crore (₹25 crore for Advanced GCC), payroll subsidies up to ₹1.8 lakh per employee per year, and 20% OPEX reimbursement on lease, bandwidth, cloud and power. The IT City and AI City build-outs are flagship-scale but still pipeline. IIM Lucknow and IIIT Lucknow anchor the academic base.
- Kochi (54.3) and 8. Thiruvananthapuram (53.8) are Kerala’s proven pair — both “Top Achiever” states on BARP, both with 20+ GCCs and multi-decade delivery track records at Infopark and Technopark respectively. Kerala’s IT Vision 2031 targets a $50 billion IT economy and 500,000+ jobs. The incentive set includes up to ₹10 crore in state GST reimbursements, six months rent-free at Infopark/Technopark, and full stamp duty waivers. Kochi adds India’s first water metro and Gulf/Southeast Asia connectivity; Trivandrum adds ISRO/IIST aerospace adjacency and the Vizhinjam deepwater transshipment port.
Tier 3 — Specialists
These cities won’t win on scale. They win on a specific mandate.
- Mangalore (45.0) is the only Tier-2 city in Karnataka with all four modes of transport, India’s first designated Start-up District, and MSEZL — a multi-product SEZ that has attracted over $2 billion in investment. Natural fit for maritime tech, trade analytics and logistics GCCs. Talent base is thin at 30,000.
- Mysuru (44.7) is Karnataka’s second-largest software exporter with 200+ technology and BPM setups, Infosys’ global training campus, and a Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence. Grade A rentals of ₹30–50 per sq ft/month are the lowest of any evaluated city. The 10-lane Bengaluru–Mysuru Expressway means leadership stays in Bengaluru while delivery sits 150 km away. For cybersecurity and ESDM specifically, it is the best-positioned city in the south.
- Visakhapatnam (43.6) has the strongest single signal of any city on the list: India’s first Tier-2 Google AI Hub, plus an ANSR–Andhra Pradesh MoU for a GCC Innovation Campus and 5,000 acres of identified IT land. Andhra ranks top on ease of doing business with 61+ approvals cleared in 1–60 days. Talent is currently modest — 55,000 experienced, only 10,000 STEM graduates a year — so this is a bet on the pipeline the state is building, not the one that exists.
Tier 4 — Early movers
- Bhopal (41.7) offers the deepest cost advantage in the report — 30–35% below Tier-1 — with MANIT, IISER, AIIMS and ISRO’s Master Control Facility supplying talent. A 2,000-acre Knowledge & AI City and a ~$59M CtrlS AI-ready data centre are in development. First-mover economics, minimal existing ecosystem.
- Bhubaneswar (39.8) has a better talent base than its rank suggests — 75,000 experienced, 55,000 graduates, 30,000 STEM — anchored by IIT Bhubaneswar and KIIT. Odisha’s GCC Policy 2025 is among the most generous on paper: 100% reimbursement of employer EPF and ESI, ₹20/sq ft rent support for five years, recruitment assistance of 10–50% of hiring costs capped between ₹50 lakh and ₹10 crore, and exemption from routine labour inspections. An 800-acre Innovation City and a 1,000-hectare Cuttack–Bhubaneswar IT corridor are planned. It scores low only because the operating GCC base is still forming.
- Warangal (36.1) is the earliest-stage entry: ~40,000 professionals, 6,000 STEM graduates a year, and an airport that is not operational. NIT Warangal is genuinely excellent, PM MITRA gives it India’s largest textile-tech campus, and costs run ~30% below Hyderabad. For textile-tech, ERP and manufacturing analytics at the lowest price point in Telangana, it works. For anything requiring senior hires at volume, it does not yet.
What the incentives are actually worth
The competition between states has produced genuinely large numbers. The most significant offers in the report:
| State / City | Headline incentive |
|---|---|
| Gujarat (GIFT City) | 100% income tax exemption for 20 years; EPF reimbursement 5 years |
| Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow) | 25% capital subsidy up to ₹10 Cr (₹25 Cr for Advanced GCC) |
| Odisha (Bhubaneswar) | 100% employer EPF + ESI reimbursement; hiring cost support to ₹10 Cr |
| Rajasthan (Jaipur) | 50% EPF/ESI reimbursement for 7 years |
| Kerala (Kochi, TVM) | Up to ₹10 Cr state GST reimbursement; 6 months rent-free |
| Karnataka (Mysuru, Mangalore) | 50% rent reimbursement to ₹50 lakh; ₹100 Cr innovation fund |
| Madhya Pradesh (Indore, Bhopal) | Rent support to ₹10 Cr; 50% of CoE project cost |
| Maharashtra (Navi Mumbai) | 10–20% rental reimbursement 5 yrs; 25% R&D reimbursement |
The Union Budget 2025 added a national guidance framework for states to build GCC-ready ecosystems beyond metros — the first coordinated central push, targeting talent pipelines, city infrastructure, building approvals and industry-government collaboration.
Three things the report doesn’t emphasise
The share gap is large. 11% CAGR on 6% of the market still leaves Tier-2 as a rounding error in absolute terms for several years. Enterprises should size expectations to 50–100 person specialised teams — which, as the report notes, is precisely the shift that makes these cities viable in the first place.
Radar scores are assessments, not audits. ANSR’s five-pillar charts are analyst judgements, and several figures are internally inconsistent across pages (Coimbatore appears variously as 40+ and 50+ GCCs, 235K and 300K professionals). Treat directionally.
ANSR has commercial relationships with several ranked states. The report discloses MoUs with GIFT City, Guidance Tamil Nadu, the Andhra Pradesh government and the Madhya Pradesh government. All four of those states appear in our top 12 — Tamil Nadu at number one. The underlying data is the best available publicly, but readers should know the author is also a participant.
The bottom line
If you need a centre staffed within 12 months, the shortlist is Coimbatore, Navi Mumbai, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram — proven ecosystems, existing GCCs, real delivery track records.
If your mandate is financial services or anything requiring regulatory sophistication, GIFT City is in a category of one.
If you are optimising for cost and can invest ahead of the curve, Lucknow, Bhopal and Bhubaneswar offer 30–35% savings and the most aggressive state incentive packages — with the ecosystem risk that discount implies.
And if you need one specific capability, the specialists are already differentiated: Mysuru for cybersecurity, Mangalore for maritime and logistics, Visakhapatnam for AI infrastructure, Warangal for textile-tech, Indore for analytics.
The concentration risk that built this thesis has not gone away. Neither has the ecosystem gap. The cities at the top of this list have closed enough of it to be defensible choices today. The rest are bets on execution — by state governments that have, so far, mostly delivered policy rather than infrastructure.
Source: ANSR, Emerging Cities: India’s Next Frontier for GCC Expansion — Report 2026. All city-level metrics, incentive details and market figures are drawn from that report. Ranking methodology and weighting are ENN World’s own. ANSR has disclosed MoUs with several state governments featured in the report.
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Ruchi Kumar is the associate editor at Entrepreneur News Network and TVW News India, where she leads editorial strategy, brand storytelling, and startup ecosystem coverage. With a strong focus on innovation, business, and marketing insights, he curates impactful narratives that spotlight India’s evolving entrepreneurial landscape. She has written extensively on fintech, AI and emerging startups.