Now Reading: Uttar Pradesh GCC Policy: Hubs, Talent, Outcomes
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Uttar Pradesh GCC Policy: Hubs, Talent, Outcomes
Uttar Pradesh GCC Policy: Hubs, Talent, Outcomes
Uttar Pradesh’s GCC Policy: How Noida, Lucknow & Varanasi Could Become India’s Next Tech Powerhouse
Before dawn breaks on the Ganga, a barge glides past Varanasi’s ghats; by mid-morning the Gomti flares with Lucknow’s office rush; by noon, Noida’s glass façades mirror the NCR sun. Uttar Pradesh’s new Global Capability Centres (GCC) policy ties these scenes together with one promise: turn North India’s gravity into global innovation.
The big idea: UP’s GCC policy and the powerhouse thesis
The policy is deliberately ambitious. It treats GCCs not as back-office cost centres but as engines for AI, cybersecurity, product engineering and advanced analytics. The vision is unapologetically scale-oriented: attract 1,000+ new GCCs, catalyse lakh-level tech jobs, and anchor R&D in cities that once sat outside India’s traditional tech map. It’s a bet on infrastructure, incentives and industry-ready talent, pulled together with single-window facilitation so companies can move from MoU to “go-live” quickly.
UP GCC Policy Vision for Noida, Lucknow & Varanasi
Noida plays “global hub” a natural magnet for multinationals that want NCR proximity without Delhi’s constraints. Lucknow emerges as the operations-and-analytics heart, blending cost efficiency, STPI presence and leadership schools into a dependable scale site. Varanasi builds a distinctive innovation brand around data, healthtech and engineering services, drawing on its university ecosystem and improved air–road connectivity. Together, the trio forms a hub-and-spoke network where high-specialisation roles anchor in Noida, while fast-growing teams expand across Lucknow and Varanasi for resilience and cost–skilled balance.
UP Govt GCC Policy – Download Here
GCC Incentives & Investment: the business case in plain English
The incentive stack is designed to crush time-to-operate. Land subsidies step up by region (higher in Purvanchal/Bundelkhand), 100% stamp-duty waivers remove transaction friction, and capital support offsets build costs. There’s 20% operating-expense reimbursement on lease, power, bandwidth and local cloud/data-centre spend, capped high enough to matter at enterprise scale. The payroll programme subsidises salaries (with stronger support for UP-domicile, women and under-represented groups), and EPF reimbursement sweetens the inclusion agenda. A serious skilling package covers training grants and internships; startup collaboration gets 50% reimbursement for proofs-of-concept; and IPR support pays statutory fees on awarded patents. For “Advanced GCCs” (higher capex or headcount; marquee investors), a case-to-case custom package is on the table.
Bottom line: your first five-year TCO curve looks meaningfully lighter, especially if you localise cloud, buy bandwidth from UP-registered providers, and build a multi-city team.
Infrastructure & Connectivity: built for speed-to-operate
UP has gone long on concrete and connectivity, expressways criss-crossing the state, five international airports including the new Jewar gateway, and a pipeline of IT parks, SEZs, data-centre and semiconductor parks in the YEIDA belt. Lucknow’s proposed AI City and a growing network of STPI centres mean Grade-A space comes online faster, with real options beyond NCR. For GCC leaders, that translates to predictable fit-outs, smoother hiring catchment, and redundancy across sites.
Closing: from skyline to storyline
If Bengaluru and Hyderabad wrote India’s first GCC chapter, Noida, Lucknow and Varanasi are writing the sequel with better talent reach, stronger incentives, and a policy that reads like an operator’s checklist. For tech staff, it’s a path to new skills and leadership roles; for middle management, it’s an acceleration lane; for executives, it’s the cheapest, quickest way to ship capability at global quality. This is the moment to place your bet. Decide the hub. Secure the spokes. Build the academy. And let the Ganga belt power your next S-curve.
The Uttar Pradesh GCC Policy 2024 is a state initiative to attract Global Capability Centres (GCCs) by offering fiscal incentives, infrastructure support, and ease-of-doing-business reforms, aiming to position UP as a leading tech and innovation hub.
The policy targets the creation of over 2 lakh high-skilled jobs across Noida, Lucknow, Varanasi, and other cities in IT, R&D, analytics, and emerging technologies.
The policy offers land subsidies, capital & operational support, payroll reimbursements, training grants, and internship subsidies, along with 100% stamp duty exemption and startup collaboration support.
The primary beneficiaries are Noida, Lucknow, and Varanasi, with additional growth expected in Kanpur, Prayagraj, and tier-2/3 cities, creating a hub-and-spoke model for GCCs.
