India has been a preferred destination for several global businesses to invest in due to a variety of competitive advantages and benefits for business expansions and relocation. Some of these include enhanced foreign direct investment (FDI) entry options and investments schemes; strategic geopolitical area that directly connects with nearby Asian countries and East Africa from its western coast routes; reforms to reduce or exempt businesses from corporate taxes, strong economic record backed by the growing digital economy; and availability of a large highly skilled workforce.
Additionally, the effect of the China Plus One strategy is boosting the attractiveness of India for FDIs. It becomes an alternative location of choice to scale up businesses especially for technology, manufacturing, and supply chain FDIs due to its low operating costs, large consumer base, and the upgraded Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. The PLI scheme targets 13 sectors across technology, semiconductor, energy, healthcare, food and textiles and aims to boost manufacturing and research and development (R&D) units in the country, expand local operations, attract FDIs and increase exportation activities.
Moreover, India has earned prominence for its information and communications technology capabilities, to which the government deliberately allocated a budget and formulated policies to drive expansion of its IT and telecom sectors. Due to its economic stability and favourable business environment, several multinational companies opt to create their global capability centres (GCCs) in India that will become “Centres of Excellence” for digital innovation and transformation, given its advanced digital capabilities and technically skilled and diverse workforce.
In this report, we will explore India’s technology industry, including its economic contribution and the policies the government is set to implement to further boost this industry. The report also highlights how the GCC sector drives India’s IT industry, with an emphasis on its market and employment landscape, and workforce diversification, particularly initiatives to include and empower women within the sector.
