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Hailing from Guntur, India's ‘chilli city,’ the 23-year-old DevOps engineer works at an American semiconductor firm for its IT and backend operations in Knowledge City, Hyderabad. She’s among the many people who power the tech centres of companies such as JP Morgan Chase, Novartis, Amgen, Oracle, AT&T, AMD and numerous other large global firms in the Telangana capital and have in turn seen their own lives getting transformed. That’s the key to Hyderabad steadily rising up the global capability centre (GCC) ranks and giving stiff competition to Bengaluru, which has so far been the first port of call for such investments.
“My father is a daily wager in the mirchi market in Guntur,” she said. “My mother is a homemaker. I come from very minimal means. My younger sister and I now work in the same campus for different companies and love being in Hyderabad. It is exciting and has made me independent both emotionally and financially. Hyderabad has brought out a new person in me.”
Thousands of others like her from all over the country work at leading global firms across sectors. It isn't just pharma, semiconductor and financial GCCs that are making their way to Hyderabad and tapping the tech talent pool. Even San Francisco-headquartered Crunchyroll, which is the world's most popular anime brand, has its tech centre based in Knowledge City.
Hyderabad finds itself gaining favour on multiple counts, said those who work at these companies. It's considered cosmopolitan and accepting of ‘outsiders,’ while being more affordable than some other metros. And it provides an “Instagrammable quality of life minus the language chauvinism that comes with some other cities,” said one of the many such employees who spoke to ET, most of whom didn’t want to be named.
“I've worked in cities across India and across all parameters — food, mobility, affordability and mainly the quality of people — Hyderabad is easily the best,” said a Crunchyroll data engineer, 28. “The infrastructure that Hyderabad provides is unparalleled. It also offers a great talent pool and today, because of the opportunities for growth, people are even willing to relocate. The only other place I would move to work is NCR because it is close to my hometown — Bareilly.”
These GCCs employ more than 300,000 professionals who feel at home in a city that has evolved from the gentle-paced Hyderabad of old to the buzzing city of today. It’s been steadily outpacing Bengaluru — out of 85 greenfield GCCs that were launched in India in 2025, a total of 35 (41%) were in Hyderabad against 21 (25%) in Bengaluru, according to January 2026 data from specialist staffing firm Xpheno. It said the city accounts for close to a fifth of total GCC units in India and 15% of the active GCC workforce.
Hyderabad has “a mix of fresh world-class infrastructure, strong talent corridors with overseas markets and a strong facilitation from the government through the state's GCC policy with incentives for inbound enterprises,” said Pallavi Nanduru, head of Xpheno’s centre in the city. “The relative freshness of the overall ecosystem has emerged a factor of attraction for talent to move into Hyderabad and add to the talent potential for GCCs to consume.”
Bengaluru faces challenges, mostly related to infrastructure, driving up costs for enterprises and talent, she said.
Hyderabad's focused pitch works in its favour. “While Bengaluru continues to attract a large canvas of GCCs across sectors, Hyderabad’s positioning as ‘the go-to destination for all things new’ has made a significant difference to it attracting a significant number of newer GCCs,” said Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, partner at Catalincs and former CMD, Cognizant India.
Getting investments from the FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google) cohort early on positioned Hyderabad as the destination for next-generation technologies and businesses, a big draw for newer GCCs investing in the country, he said.
Further, the Telangana state government created studios and clusters such as T-Hub, Mobility Valley, Genome Valley, Financial District and T-AIM, as well as the Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge (TASK) to address skilling gaps across sectors, which provided further impetus.
“These initiatives attracted a large number of pharmaceutical, biotech, electric vehicles, energy storage, financial services and manufacturing companies that were keen on embracing newer digital technologies such as cloud, cyber, data analytics, AI and IoT technologies,” Ramamoorthy said.
While Bengaluru leads in terms of total GCCs with 910 active ones, according to Xpheno, versus 395 in Hyderabad, industry leaders such as former Infosys chief financial officer CFO Mohandas Pai have repeatedly raised concerns over the Karnataka capital’s woes and urged state leaders to act swiftly.
“Please market Bengaluru vigorously. We are losing out at the margin. Please improve our infrastructure,” Pai posted on March 2 on X, tagging Karnataka IT minister Priyank Kharge. He also addressed deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar in the post, saying the city needed “more action, targeted finishing of metro, infra to change the narrative for Bengaluru.”
Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw echoed this sentiment when on March 2 she posted that Bengaluru must double down on improving infrastructure. “Roads, pavements and waste management. PRR & ORR must be world class. We simply don’t have the luxury of time,” she said in a post on X, referring to the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) and Outer Ring Road (ORR), two corridors seen as critical to easing congestion and supporting the city’s expanding tech and industrial hubs.
To be sure, there are those like the 28-year-old software engineer at an American fabless firm who say Hyderabad isn’t as “happening” as Mumbai and Bengaluru, where there are greater opportunities for employees to pursue moonlighting that satisfies their creative urges.
“When I worked in Mumbai, it was very common for colleagues to pursue side gigs like DJing or going for open mics,” he said. “This was something that I was missing in Hyderabad initially when I started work here about six months back. This is something that is very common even in Bengaluru but has been absent so far in Hyderabad and I wish there was space for more of that. But I have gotten used to focusing on one thing at a time. Overall, I do like it here."
“My father is a daily wager in the mirchi market in Guntur,” she said. “My mother is a homemaker. I come from very minimal means. My younger sister and I now work in the same campus for different companies and love being in Hyderabad. It is exciting and has made me independent both emotionally and financially. Hyderabad has brought out a new person in me.”
Thousands of others like her from all over the country work at leading global firms across sectors. It isn't just pharma, semiconductor and financial GCCs that are making their way to Hyderabad and tapping the tech talent pool. Even San Francisco-headquartered Crunchyroll, which is the world's most popular anime brand, has its tech centre based in Knowledge City.
Hyderabad finds itself gaining favour on multiple counts, said those who work at these companies. It's considered cosmopolitan and accepting of ‘outsiders,’ while being more affordable than some other metros. And it provides an “Instagrammable quality of life minus the language chauvinism that comes with some other cities,” said one of the many such employees who spoke to ET, most of whom didn’t want to be named.
“I've worked in cities across India and across all parameters — food, mobility, affordability and mainly the quality of people — Hyderabad is easily the best,” said a Crunchyroll data engineer, 28. “The infrastructure that Hyderabad provides is unparalleled. It also offers a great talent pool and today, because of the opportunities for growth, people are even willing to relocate. The only other place I would move to work is NCR because it is close to my hometown — Bareilly.”
These GCCs employ more than 300,000 professionals who feel at home in a city that has evolved from the gentle-paced Hyderabad of old to the buzzing city of today. It’s been steadily outpacing Bengaluru — out of 85 greenfield GCCs that were launched in India in 2025, a total of 35 (41%) were in Hyderabad against 21 (25%) in Bengaluru, according to January 2026 data from specialist staffing firm Xpheno. It said the city accounts for close to a fifth of total GCC units in India and 15% of the active GCC workforce.
Hyderabad has “a mix of fresh world-class infrastructure, strong talent corridors with overseas markets and a strong facilitation from the government through the state's GCC policy with incentives for inbound enterprises,” said Pallavi Nanduru, head of Xpheno’s centre in the city. “The relative freshness of the overall ecosystem has emerged a factor of attraction for talent to move into Hyderabad and add to the talent potential for GCCs to consume.”
Bengaluru faces challenges, mostly related to infrastructure, driving up costs for enterprises and talent, she said.
Hyderabad's focused pitch works in its favour. “While Bengaluru continues to attract a large canvas of GCCs across sectors, Hyderabad’s positioning as ‘the go-to destination for all things new’ has made a significant difference to it attracting a significant number of newer GCCs,” said Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, partner at Catalincs and former CMD, Cognizant India.
Getting investments from the FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google) cohort early on positioned Hyderabad as the destination for next-generation technologies and businesses, a big draw for newer GCCs investing in the country, he said.
Further, the Telangana state government created studios and clusters such as T-Hub, Mobility Valley, Genome Valley, Financial District and T-AIM, as well as the Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge (TASK) to address skilling gaps across sectors, which provided further impetus.
“These initiatives attracted a large number of pharmaceutical, biotech, electric vehicles, energy storage, financial services and manufacturing companies that were keen on embracing newer digital technologies such as cloud, cyber, data analytics, AI and IoT technologies,” Ramamoorthy said.
While Bengaluru leads in terms of total GCCs with 910 active ones, according to Xpheno, versus 395 in Hyderabad, industry leaders such as former Infosys chief financial officer CFO Mohandas Pai have repeatedly raised concerns over the Karnataka capital’s woes and urged state leaders to act swiftly.
“Please market Bengaluru vigorously. We are losing out at the margin. Please improve our infrastructure,” Pai posted on March 2 on X, tagging Karnataka IT minister Priyank Kharge. He also addressed deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar in the post, saying the city needed “more action, targeted finishing of metro, infra to change the narrative for Bengaluru.”
Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw echoed this sentiment when on March 2 she posted that Bengaluru must double down on improving infrastructure. “Roads, pavements and waste management. PRR & ORR must be world class. We simply don’t have the luxury of time,” she said in a post on X, referring to the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) and Outer Ring Road (ORR), two corridors seen as critical to easing congestion and supporting the city’s expanding tech and industrial hubs.
To be sure, there are those like the 28-year-old software engineer at an American fabless firm who say Hyderabad isn’t as “happening” as Mumbai and Bengaluru, where there are greater opportunities for employees to pursue moonlighting that satisfies their creative urges.
“When I worked in Mumbai, it was very common for colleagues to pursue side gigs like DJing or going for open mics,” he said. “This was something that I was missing in Hyderabad initially when I started work here about six months back. This is something that is very common even in Bengaluru but has been absent so far in Hyderabad and I wish there was space for more of that. But I have gotten used to focusing on one thing at a time. Overall, I do like it here."
