Starbucks Chooses Chennai for Global Tech Hub
US coffee chain Starbucks has signed an agreement to establish a global capability center (GCC) in Chennai, India. The move is expected to create around 800 technology jobs in the city. Anand Varadarajan, Starbucks' technology chief, cited the availability of a skilled workforce and good infrastructure as reasons for choosing Chennai. This comes just days after US pharmacy chain Walgreens signed a similar pact with Tamil Nadu.
Chennai already has a large presence of GCCs, accounting for around 10% of India's total base. The city is home to tech centers of global business groups including Citi, Barclays, and American Express. India has emerged as the world's largest GCC hub, with over 2,100 centers employing around 2.36 million people and generating nearly $100 billion in revenue.
According to a report by Nasscom-Zinnov, GCCs have moved beyond low-cost back-office support and are now being used for higher-value functions such as finance, software development, research, and development.