More US corporate to set up captive centres in Bangalore
Makers of Victoria’s Secret lingerie, Limited Brands, is going to establish its first-ever global in-house centre (GIC) in Bangalore. The US firm has other brands – Pink, Bath & Body Works, Henri Bendel and La Senza. The centre will provide data analytics, which will help the organisation to analyze vast quantities of customer and retail information. The firm has sought the nod of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to set up the technology centre. In the meantime, they will operate out of leased space in Manyata Tech Park.
Other US companies close to setting up GICs in Bangalore are the $50-billion home improvement and hardware store chain Lowe’s, the $137-billion food major Cargill and the $14-billion healthcare company Baxter International.
Primary purpose of setting up a GIC was to save costs, but they, now, have moved up the value chain and form an integral part of parent companies’ operations. K S Viswanathan, vice-president of the GIC initiative at Nasscom points out that GIC are increasingly becoming a significant contributor to the enterprise topline.
Of over 1,600 GICs globally, India is home to around 43% of them. GICs contribute 19% of the Indian IT-BPO industry revenue (around USD 20 Billion) and 15% of the workforce. Citibank, StanChart, and HSBC too have set up GICs in India.
Karnataka government, together with Nasscom and ANSR Consulting are working on are working on the Bangalore 50K Plan. The plan is to make Bangalore GIC capital of the country and bring 25 GICs to Bangalore in the next five years to create 50,000 jobs.
Lalit Ahuja, promoter ANSR Consulting, points out that strategic and regulatory imperatives require setting up of captive centres and less and less outsourcing of work to third party vendors.
Source: The Times of India
Bangalore, captive centres, Foreign Investment Promotion Board, Limited Brands, Manyata Tech Park, Realty News, Victoria's Secret
