Jammu, Oct 10: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Saturday said Jammu and Kashmir was ready for Global Capability Centres (GCCs).
Addressing the valedictory session of the J&K Global Capability Centre (GCC) Summit 2026, LG Sinha said that J&K was poised to emerge as a significant destination for Global Capability Centres, driven by its young talent, improving infrastructure, investor-friendly policies, and growing innovation ecosystem.
Congratulating IIM Jammu, NASSCOM, partner institutions and the administration for successfully organising the two-day summit, he urged participants to reflect on a key question about why companies seeking their next talent hub, innovation centre, and capacity destination should J&K be their preferred choice and work together with a strong resolve to make it a reality.
Drawing inspiration from the world’s highest railway arch bridge over the Chenab River, the LG said that J&K today reflects the confidence and ambition required to pursue transformational goals.
He said that the Chenab itself, formed through the confluence of the Chandra and Bhaga rivers, symbolises the spirit of collaboration.
LG Sinha said that in a similar manner, GCCs bring together the global expertise, capital and technology of multinational enterprises with the talent, aspirations, and imagination of J&K’s youth to create new opportunities for growth and innovation.
“I see Global Capability Centres in the same spirit of courage and confluence and together they can generate a strength far beyond their separate capabilities,” he said.
The LG said that India was home to more than 2100 GCCs employing over 19 lakh professionals and contributing substantially to exports.
He highlighted that an increasing number of GCCs were expanding beyond metropolitan centres into Tier-II and Tier-III cities, demonstrating that India’s talent pool was now widely distributed across the country. LG Sinha said that this presents both an opportunity and a responsibility for J&K to strengthen its institutions, infrastructure, and innovation ecosystem.
Emphasising the future direction of the GCC sector, he said that the journey of GCCs had evolved from questions of cost efficiency to excellence and capability.
The LG expressed confidence that J&K could evolve from being a destination for capability centres to becoming a hub for unique global innovations originating from the region.
He also highlighted the rapid transformation of J&K under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
LG Sinha said the major infrastructure developments and enhanced connectivity were supporting the rising industrial investments and the remarkable growth of the startup ecosystem.
“The industrial revolution we are witnessing today in parts of the Jammu division and the Kashmir Valley is a living symbol of the new Jammu Kashmir. In 2020, there were only 69 startups and that number has now risen to 1,305, a growth of over 1800 percent. When the energy of young, ambitious graduates from IIM Jammu, IIT Jammu, NIT Srinagar and other universities of Jammu Kashmir is added to these figures, you see a ready workforce emerging,” he said.
The LG identified six key advantages that position J&K as an attractive GCC destination including strong financial support, lower operating costs, special incentives for pioneering multinational investors, the return of local talent, first-mover advantages for early GCC entrants and opportunities in niche sectors such as agri-tech, tourism-tech, and handicraft digitisation.
Outlining a four-pillar roadmap for the next five years, he stressed talent development through industry-academia partnerships, building trust through credible implementation, leveraging J&K’s unique destination advantages and promoting inclusive growth through a hub-and-spoke development model.
Expressing confidence in J&K’s future, LG Sinha said that GCCs could become an integral pillar of J&K’s industrial ecosystem over the next decade.
He said that the foundation laid during the summit could help build a new, aspirational, and innovation-driven J&K that was fully prepared to welcome Global Capability Centres from across the world.
Atal Dulloo, Chief Secretary, J&K; Padma Bhushan Rajendra Singh Pawar, Chairman, NIIT; Prof B S Sahay, Director IIM Jammu; Kumar Rajeev Ranjan, Secretary, Labour and Employment Department, J&K; Prof Jabir Ali, Dean, Faculty and Research, IIM Jammu; Prof Nitin Upadhyay, Dean Academics, IIM Jammu; and Sandeep Ananthanarayanan, CEO, CITaG, IIM Jammu attended the valedictory session.
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