Key Highlights

• The target: Coimbatore could grow from 75+ GCCs today to nearly 200 by 2032, adding about 125 centres, says an EY-CII report.
• Talent base: The city has over 3 lakh tech professionals, 137 engineering colleges and 30,000+ STEM graduates a year.
• Proven scale: Some GCCs in Coimbatore already employ over 1,000 people.
• The pace needed: Reaching 200 would mean roughly 21 new GCCs a year, or about 18% annual growth.
• The edge: Lower attrition, competitive office rents and supportive state policies could help.

Coimbatore, long known as a manufacturing and textile hub, could become one of India's next big destinations for Global Capability Centres (GCCs). A joint report by EY and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) says the city could increase its GCCs from more than 75 today to nearly 200 by 2032.

That means attracting about 125 more GCCs over the next six years, by leveraging its engineering talent, industrial base, workforce stability and growing innovation ecosystem.

Coimbatore by the Numbers

"Beyond a Tier-Two City"

Manoj Marwah, Partner and GCC Markets Leader at EY India, said Coimbatore has moved beyond the traditional definition of a tier-two city and has already shown it can support large-scale GCC operations. He noted that some GCCs in the city have grown to more than 1,000 employees.

V Noushad, Chairman of CII Coimbatore Zone and Managing Director of Walkaroo International, said global companies are increasingly looking beyond metro cities for talent, resilience and specialised capabilities, and called the report's framework a practical roadmap.

The 5R Growth Framework

The report outlines a five-pillar framework focused on:

• Attracting companies looking to expand beyond metro hubs
• Building on existing GCC success stories
• Encouraging regional enterprises to set up their own capability centres
• Developing specialised engineering and innovation capabilities
• Helping existing GCCs scale up

Why It Matters: An Ambitious Target in Context

India is already a global GCC powerhouse, home to nearly 2,120 centres, with GCC hiring projected to cross five lakh jobs in 2026 for the first time.

Tier-2 cities are part of that story. They are seeing the fastest growth in GCC hiring, expanding at 23% year-on-year, nearly twice the pace of metro markets. Emerging cities together already host more than 220 GCC units, growing at nearly 11% a year.

Still, the big metros dominate. Of the 183 GCC units India added in the first half of 2026, expansion remained concentrated in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune, with tier-II growth moving at a slower pace.

That makes Coimbatore's target stand out. Going from 75 to 200 GCCs in six years implies growth of roughly 18% a year, well above the ~11% pace of emerging cities overall. It is achievable only if the city can pull companies away from the metros, not just follow the national trend.

What Works in Coimbatore's Favour

The report highlights factors that make the city attractive: lower employee attrition, strong educational institutions, competitive office rentals and supportive state government policies. Its engineering and manufacturing base could also make it a natural fit for GCCs focused on product engineering and industrial technology, rather than only IT services.

What It Means for Jobs

For Coimbatore's graduates, more GCCs would mean more high-skill jobs close to home, reducing the need to move to Bengaluru or Chennai. Nationally, nearly two in three new GCC roles created in 2026 require AI, data science or intelligent automation skills, a signal of the skills local colleges may need to focus on.

The Bottom Line

Coimbatore has the talent, the costs and the early success stories to become a major GCC destination. Whether it reaches 200 centres by 2032 will depend on how fast it can convince global companies to look beyond India's established tech hubs.

With inputs from IANS.