The more interesting question is: what does India actually own?
The scale is undeniable. India now has 2,117 GCCs employing around 2.36 million professionals, with the ecosystem generating approximately $98.4 billion in market revenue, according to the latest Nasscom–Zinnov GCC Landscape Report.
But perhaps more telling for the Product conversation is this: 96% of GCCs established since FY2021 were launched with product or portfolio mandates from day one.
That signals a significant change in how global enterprises are thinking about their India centres.
But having Product teams in a GCC is one thing. Giving them meaningful product decision rights is another.
Who decides which customer problem gets solved? Who prioritizes the roadmap? Who determines product investments? Who interacts with customers? And who is ultimately accountable for whether the product succeeds?
These questions reveal far more about a GCC’s Product maturity than the number of Product Managers it employs.
The Ownership Question
Product organizations across GCCs are not built the same way.
In some, Product teams work closely with global counterparts, translating requirements and executing against established priorities. In others, they influence roadmap decisions, customer discovery and prioritization. And in some organizations, GCC-based teams are responsible for entire product areas, with accountability extending well beyond delivery.
The interesting part is not simply where an organization sits on this spectrum.
It is how it got there.
What changed? Was it stronger Product leadership? Greater customer access? A shift in the global operating model? The arrival of a new business mandate? Or simply the accumulation of trust over time?
Does Customer Proximity Still Matter?
There is another question worth examining.
Can a GCC Product team truly influence global products without being close to customers?
Physical proximity is not necessarily the same as customer proximity. Product teams can develop deep customer understanding through direct conversations, research, analytics, market intelligence and engagement with global commercial teams.
But there is a difference between receiving customer insights and owning the customer problem.
The latter requires context, accountability, and the authority to make decisions.
Beyond Shipping Features
Perhaps the clearest test of Product maturity is what the team is measured against.
Is success defined by features delivered and releases completed?
Or does the GCC Product organization influence adoption, retention, revenue, customer experience, operational efficiency, market expansion, or other business outcomes?
That distinction matters because the GCC conversation itself is changing.
The latest Nasscom–Zinnov research describes India’s GCC ecosystem as increasingly focused on enterprise value creation, with AI becoming deeply embedded across products, platforms and infrastructure.
As that happens, Product may become one of the clearest functions through which GCCs demonstrate whether they are merely contributing to global businesses or actually helping shape them.
So, Who Owns the Product?
This is the question GCC Pulse is exploring through its Function Deep Dive Series: Inside Product in GCCs: Who Builds, Who Decides, Who Owns?
We are bringing together perspectives from senior Product and GCC leaders across industries to understand where Product ownership actually sits, how decision rights are distributed, how GCC teams influence customer and business outcomes, and what distinguishes organisations that have built meaningful Product capabilities.
The findings will bring together these perspectives, experiences and emerging patterns into a dedicated industry study.
The first GCC Pulse ‘Function Deep Dive’ is coming soon.
