Nearly 5 lakh women employed in Indian GCCs

BENGALURU: Indian global capability centres (GCCs) have made significant strides in gender diversity, with nearly five lakh women currently employed in the sector. This represents 28% of the total 16 lakh employees working in GCCs across India, as shown in the Pure Storage and Zinnov report titled “Towards a Gender Equitable World”. Within the deep tech ecosystem, gender diversity stands at 23%.
Despite this positive development, it highlights the substantial ground that still needs to be covered to bridge the diversity gap in the industry. With only 6.7% of women in executive roles in GCCs and 5.1% in deep tech organisations, there is a considerable decrease in the available talent pool of women as they move up the career ladder. In GCCs, at the senior level (9-12 years of experience), the representation stands at 15.7%, the report said.

India has nearly 1,600 GCCs. In 2022-23, GCCs added 2.8 lakh employees, taking its talent base to over 1.6 million. The report stated that family and caregiving responsibilities, limited access to career advancement and opportunities, and poor work-life balance are some factors influencing women’s attrition.
“While India proudly leads in the number of women STEM graduates globally, their under-representation in the deep tech workforce stems from systemic barriers hindering their education and career advancement. To unlock the full potential of our talent pool, we need to take a comprehensive approach, including strategic actions to increase the enrolment of women in leading technological institutions and retaining them in the workforce,” said Ajeya Motaganahalli, VP of engineering and MD, India R&D at Pure Storage.
The median representation of women graduates from top engineering universities stands at 25% between 2020-23, which directly affects the inflow of female candidates in GCCs, especially in the deep tech sector. Despite this disparity in women’s representation, women graduates consistently outperformed in securing placements compared to the overall average in top-tier universities.
“Advancement in any industry is stagnant without equity. While deep tech has pushed the boundaries of possibility, the sobering truth is that the sector has only 5.1% women at the executive level. Interventions to solve the talent pipeline issue and create work environments enabling women to thrive have become an urgent necessity,” said Karthik Padmanabhan, managing partner at tech advisory firm Zinnov.