As global capability centres (GCCs) in India evolve beyond traditional IT support roles, the demand for conventional, generalist skill sets is softening, while the industry increasingly prioritises specialised capabilities in emerging areas such as generative AI, financial operations, cloud security, and fintech.
For GCCs striving to remain competitive and future-ready, domain expertise is now a foundational requirement.
According to a recent report by Quess Corp, data engineering has become central to real-time decision-making as GCCs accelerate their investments in robust, cloud-native data infrastructure. While data science remains a critical function, the focus is clearly shifting towards more specialised, domain-centric analytics. This reflects a broader trend. When it comes to GCCs, the ability to embed deep business knowledge within technical functions is becoming a critical differentiator.
Neeti Sharma, CEO of TeamLease Digital, told AIM, “As these centres start doing more important and innovative work, they need tech professionals who really understand their industries.”
Echoing this sentiment, Roop Kaistha, regional managing director of APAC at AMS, informed AIM that the next wave of growth will come from building deep, domain-specific talent pools. Collaboration between GCCs and academia can play a catalytic role in this regard. By co-creating curriculum, enabling hands-on experience, and embedding soft skills and domain context into learning pathways, talent can be nurtured to be both technically strong and business-ready.
This strategic pivot is especially evident in sectors such as banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), where deep fintech expertise is in demand across Indian enterprises, startups, GCCs, and public digital infrastructure.
An Interesting Industry-Academia Collaboration
In response to this demand, companies like Fidelity Information Services (FIS) have taken a long-term view by investing in the education pipeline.
Talking to AIM, Ramkumar Narayanan, executive VP of technology and services in India and the Philippines at FIS, said over the last 12 months, the focus has been on hiring from industries that are far and wide.
The core are product companies—places where people have worked on a wide variety of use cases across different markets and have demonstrated experience in building and scaling enterprise software.
In partnership with Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), a unit of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), FIS launched a four-year BTech programme in computer science and financial technology in August 2023. This is one of the first dedicated programmes of its kind in the country, purpose-built to create deep fintech talent from the ground up.
This collaborative initiative goes beyond theoretical instruction. FIS professionals co-develop and co-deliver the curriculum alongside the MIT-Manipal faculty, offering students a blend of academic rigour and industry relevance.
The programme integrates foundational knowledge in computational mathematics and software development with in-depth modules on economics, machine learning, deep learning, and core financial domains such as banking, insurance, payments, and trading.
From the very first year, students are immersed in fintech principles. Labs are carefully designed to blend financial concepts with computing and real-world use cases, creating a laddered learning pathway over the four-year programme.
Notably, this is not just a talent pipeline for FIS, it’s a broader ecosystem play. “The intention is not that FIS will hire all these students,” an FIS leader shared.
“We want to get them ready for the market. If they choose to work with us, great—we already know their quality. But more than that, we see this as building long-term value for India,” Narayanan added.
Scaling with Purposeful Depth
Now in its second year, the programme has gained strong traction, Narayanan added. Each batch is capped at around 70 students due to high demand, and Manipal is already in talks with FIS to consider scaling.
He further mentioned that FIS believes in focusing on a few institutions rather than spreading efforts thin across many. However, it is also complementing these deep partnerships with lighter-touch university engagements across the broader academic landscape, especially with high-potential tier-two institutions.
These engagements involve FIS professionals conducting sessions on BFSI career pathways, financial systems and digital transformation, and contribute to awareness, aspiration, and future recruitment potential.Furthermore, this model of industry-academia collaboration is gaining ground. Siemens Healthineers, for example, is exploring similar engagement models to align academic curricula with real-world industry requirements. The company is working closely with institutions like Manipal Academy of Higher Education to bridge the gap between theory and practice by contributing to syllabus development and deploying industry professionals into classrooms.
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