EU enterprise leaders must use the new trade deal to scale GCCs in India

Enterprises in the European Union (EU) now have a clear window of opportunity: GCC decisions will be easier to approve, faster to staff, and simpler to run with consistent cross-border operating practices. The EU-India summit on January 27 made this shift clear after concluding negotiations on the free trade agreement, including a comprehensive framework of cooperation on mobility. That combination directly addresses the two constraints that generally slow GCC scaling: talent movement and operating predictability.

Why this deal will lead to a GCC moment for EU enterprises

GCC leaders in the EU are already leveraging India as one of the deepest pools for engineering scale and operational depth. However, challenges with leadership rotations, specialist injections, and sustained business engagement across geographies often inhibit scaling. The mobility framework under the EU-India Trade Pact is explicitly designed to facilitate safe and regular migration of highly skilled workers, students, researchers, and seasonal workers in shortage occupations. It reinforces the case for a repeatable staff rotation model between EU business teams and India GCC teams.

For enterprises, that matters because GCC decisions hinge on two things: (i) the ability to staff at scale and (ii) the ability to run under predictable governance. The summit outcomes also place technology and innovation closer to the center of the partnership, with an explicit focus on research, innovation hubs, startup cooperation, cyber-secure digital ecosystems, and broader collaboration on emerging technologies.

The EU and India have also committed to deeper collaboration across the value chain, including cyber-secure trusted digital ecosystems, EU-India Innovation Hubs, and an EU-India Startup partnership. That gives EU firms an easier internal story to justify India GCC mandates that go beyond cost.

The GCC momentum is already strong, and the EU has been growing its share. HFS Research estimates that about a quarter of the 1,800+ GCCs in India have European (including UK) parentage. EU GCCs in India grew at a CAGR of 5.63% (or 1.5x) between 2018 and 2025 compared to a 4% CAGR (1.3x) for non-EU headquartered GCCs over the same period.

For EU enterprises, this deal arrives as a timing lever. It supports another expansion cycle in late 2026 and beyond once internal approvals, legal vetting, and ratification are complete.

What changes for European enterprise leaders in the next 12 to 18 months

The first impact will be confidence and speed. EU firms already operating GCCs in India will move faster on expansion decisions because senior stakeholders can align around a clearer cross-border operating posture, particularly on mobility and the broader partnership framing.

The second impact will be a shift in the type of work that moves to India. Expect more EU enterprises to place engineering and product operations alongside risk, data governance, and cyber roles in India GCCs. The deal and the strategic agenda have put trust, digital cooperation, and people-to-people mobility in the same frame.

The third impact will be a stronger two-way rotation operating model. Firms will structure more frequent rotations between EU business teams and India GCC teams to accelerate delivery and reduce coordination drag. The mobility framework explicitly calls out highly skilled workers, students, and researchers, which fits GCC staffing patterns in practice.

To fully realize these impacts, EU enterprise leaders must act on the following:

• Decide what they want to achieve, then design for it. The deal will make it easier to establish and expand Indian GCCs, but expansion plans must have clearly articulated goals. Cost is only one part of the puzzle but should not be the sole motivator.
• Define partner lanes up front. Enterprises should define which domains benefit most from a GCC play, identify which processes and value chains must remain tightly governed in-house, and which can be handed over to partners. They must set up clear boundaries for areas, such as site operations, recruiting engines, platforms, and toolchains, and explicitly define governance ownership, IP boundaries, and decision rights.
• Treat talent as a business priority. A mobility pathway increases enterprises’ options but also raises expectations from senior leaders who will want proof of speed. To meet that bar, enterprises must invest in role-based career paths that connect Europe and India. This means preparing GCC leaders for global accountability and pairing that with compensation and recognition models that retain high performers in roles that typically churn. A rotation model must be created for product owners, risk leads, data governance leaders, and engineering managers, tied directly to releases, audits, and key milestones.
• Focus on capability, not real estate costs. Many GCC failures begin with poor hiring targets and location decisions. Enterprises must first focus on roles, define the operating model, establish the controls architecture, and fix on locations that meet requirements in terms of space and talent availability.

GCCs will become centers of excellence, not low-cost capacity pools

The EU GCC expansion is expected to focus on high-quality talent in areas such as AI, cybersecurity, engineering, and design, with stronger expectations for product thinking, risk discipline, and delivery maturity from day one. Providers that keep selling volume-based staffing will struggle to stay relevant as these GCCs scale.

Indian service providers that want to ride this growth wave must show they can stand up capability, not just fill roles. This requires building talent pipelines tuned to these specialist domains, including targeted sourcing, structured onboarding, and leadership benches that can operate in global product and risk environments. The winners will be those that can package the GCC setup as a repeatable offering for Europe, with operating model templates aligned to European governance expectations, standard packs for security and audit readiness, and domain-tuned talent acquisition playbooks for regulated functions.

Providers will also need Europe-specific readiness at the contract and account level. EU enterprises will look for clear evidence of how risk is managed across the GCC and partner ecosystem. This means repeatable contract clauses, accountable roles for data protection and cyber assurance, and crisp RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed) models that make decision rights and responsibilities unambiguous.

Finally, service providers should make the newfound mobility a delivery lever. Many GCC engagements will start with “build and operate” support, then shift toward enterprise ownership, including BOT-style transitions in some cases. Providers that manage this handover smoothly will become long-term partners. At the same time, they should operationalize cross-border rotations with staffing pools, strong onboarding and knowledge transfer, and governance rhythms that keep EU enterprise stakeholders engaged and confident.

The Bottom Line: EU enterprise leaders have a golden opportunity to lock in GCC capabilities in India.

The EU-India deal removes two of the biggest friction points in GCC scaling: talent mobility and operating predictability. Senior leaders that treat this deal as a structural lever will be able to scale with discipline, create a mobility-backed operating model, embed governance and controls from day one, and elevate India GCCs into product, engineering, cyber, and risk centers of excellence.