Karnataka's Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Bengaluru-based GoodWorks Group on August 6, 2026, to attract 50 new Global Capability Centres (GCCs) and ₹5,000 crore in investment to the state. The headline numbers — 62,500 jobs, ₹2,250 crore in annual salaries, and 1.25 million square feet of commercial real estate — all come from GoodWorks Group's own economic impact assessment, not from an independent government study. That distinction matters: GoodWorks is a private GCC-enabler whose Sansovi platform earns revenue from every new centre it helps set up, so the projections are vendor-supplied targets amplified by a state agency, not independently verified promises.
Last verified: August 7, 2026
- KDEM and GoodWorks Group signed an MoU on August 6, 2026, targeting 50 new GCCs and ₹5,000 crore investment.
- Projected jobs: 12,500 direct high-skilled + 50,000 indirect = 62,500 total (source: GoodWorks's assessment).
- Karnataka already hosts 1,100+ GCCs (~40% of India's total) generating $22 billion in economic output.
- The deal follows Karnataka's broader GCC Policy 2024-2029, which targets 500 new GCCs and $50 billion output by 2029.
- Volatile: projections are vendor-supplied with no hard deadline attached.
What is the KDEM-GoodWorks GCC partnership?
The Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM), a Section 8 not-for-profit organisation that bridges the Government of Karnataka and industry, signed a strategic MoU with GoodWorks Group on August 6, 2026, in Bengaluru. The partnership is built around GoodWorks's Sansovi GCC-as-a-Service platform, which helps global enterprises set up, scale, and run centres in India — covering talent acquisition, technology, real estate, and regulatory compliance under one roof. Sansovi was launched in January 2025 as the GCC-focused division of GoodWorks Group, which was founded in 2013 by Vishwas Mudagal and Sonia Sharma (GoodWorks Group, Business of GCC).
The MoU combines KDEM's investment-promotion mandate with GoodWorks's enterprise network and operational platform. KDEM CEO Sanjeev Gupta framed it as bringing "complementary strengths to further enhance Karnataka's value proposition for global enterprises and accelerate the next phase of GCC-led growth" (Analytics India Magazine, August 6, 2026). The partnership has no publicly disclosed hard deadline — the release refers only to "the coming years."
What are the 50 new GCCs and ₹5,000 crore targets?
GoodWorks Group's economic impact assessment projects the following outcomes from the partnership:
| Metric | Target | Source |
|---|---|---|
| New GCCs | 50 centres | GoodWorks assessment |
| Investment commitments | ₹5,000 crore+ | GoodWorks assessment |
| Direct high-skilled jobs | 12,500 | GoodWorks assessment |
| Indirect jobs | 50,000 | GoodWorks assessment |
| Total jobs | 62,500 | GoodWorks assessment |
| Annual salaries generated | ₹2,250 crore | GoodWorks assessment |
| Commercial real estate absorbed | 1.25 million sq ft | GoodWorks assessment |
Sonia Sharma, Co-Founder of GoodWorks Group (and COO of Sansovi), broke down the jobs math directly: 12,500 high-skilled direct jobs plus 50,000 indirect jobs across supporting industries (Analytics India Magazine). She tied the talent pipeline to two GoodWorks products: NetSkill, an AI-powered learning and upskilling platform, and an AI-powered "talent-as-a-pipeline" service — both designed to build GCC-ready talent ahead of demand (GoodWorks Group, CB Insights).
Critical caveat: Every number above originates from GoodWorks Group's own assessment, not from KDEM or an independent third party. GoodWorks is a private enabler whose Sansovi platform grows revenue with every GCC it helps establish. That does not make the projections wrong, but it means KDEM is amplifying a forecast produced by its partner — and no binding deadline is attached.
How does this fit into Karnataka's broader GCC strategy?
This MoU is one piece of a much larger push. In September 2024, Karnataka launched India's first dedicated GCC Policy (2024-2029), aiming to attract 500 new GCCs, generate 3.5 lakh jobs, and produce $50 billion in economic output by 2029. The policy was crafted after consultations with over 500 industry experts and was unveiled by IT and Biotechnology Minister Priyank Kharge (The South First, September 27, 2024; The Federal, September 27, 2024).
The policy's key planks include:
- Beyond Bengaluru initiative: Incentives for GCCs setting up in Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubballi-Dharwad-Belagavi, Kalaburagi, Tumakuru, and Shivamogga — including rental reimbursement, EPF contribution reimbursement, property tax reimbursement, and recruitment assistance (Karnataka GCC Policy, eitbt.karnataka.gov.in). This builds on Karnataka's broader ₹7,506 crore industrial surge beyond Bengaluru announced earlier in 2026, and earlier efforts to build rural AI infrastructure and talent pipelines outside the capital.
- Global Innovation Districts: Three new technology parks — one in Bengaluru and two Beyond Bengaluru.
- Centre of Excellence for AI: A hub-and-spoke model with academic institutions, plus an AI Skilling Council (Cushman & Wakefield, October 2024).
- Nano GCC support: Special incentives for centres with 5 to 50 employees (Nexocean).
- ₹100 crore innovation fund for GCC-academia collaboration (Cushman & Wakefield).
More recently, in July 2026, Chief Minister DK Shivakumar chaired a consultation with over 150 multinational enterprise leaders (including Google, Intel, IBM, Anthropic, JPMorgan Chase, and Rolls-Royce) to discuss the state's GCC roadmap, projecting 500 new GCCs and $50 billion economic output by 2029 (ETGovernment, July 8, 2026). The GoodWorks MoU follows a similar earlier tie-up with Zyoin Group, suggesting that enabler-partner MoUs are becoming a repeatable model for KDEM — not a one-off (The Hindu).
How big is Karnataka's existing GCC base?
Karnataka already dominates India's GCC landscape:
- 1,100+ GCCs hosted in the state, representing roughly 40% of India's total GCC base (Deccan Herald, August 2026; Analytics India Magazine).
- $22 billion in economic output generated from the sector (Economic Times).
- Over 1.2 million people employed by GCCs in Karnataka (The Federal, September 2024).
- The state government expects 12-14% annual growth in the GCC sector and aims to hold nearly 50% of India's GCC market share by 2029 (The South First).
At the national level, India hosts roughly 1,700-2,100+ GCCs employing nearly 2 million professionals and generating $64-$98 billion in revenue, depending on the reporting year and methodology. The sector is projected to reach $99-$105 billion by 2030 (Nasscom-Zinnov via Reuters, September 2024). India's GCC hiring continues at scale, with the sector holding at approximately 200,000 hires for FY27 even as IT services rebounds. Karnataka's capital itself is on an ambitious trajectory — Bengaluru's $420 billion economic masterplan targets 2037, and the city's AI startup ecosystem has surged to $153 billion, making it Asia's second-largest AI hub.
Which sectors and markets does the partnership target?
The KDEM-GoodWorks MoU identifies six target sectors and five geographic regions for outreach:
Target sectors: Artificial Intelligence, engineering, financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, and semiconductors.
Geographic outreach: North America, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and the Middle East.
The partnership's methods include organising sector-focused roundtables, facilitating international business delegations, publishing GCC-focused industry research, supporting policy implementation, and strengthening industry-academia collaborations. It also envisions creating virtual centres of excellence for strategic sectors to foster collaboration among government, academia, industry, and global enterprises (Analytics India Magazine).
Karnataka faces growing competition from other Indian states — Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh — all vying for GCC investment. Tamil Nadu, for instance, has launched its own Arivagam AI economy initiative targeting a $1.5 trillion economy by 2036, signalling that the state-level race for tech investment is intensifying.
Is this genuinely new capacity — or a partner's growth target?
This is the central question the deal raises. The numbers come from GoodWorks Group's own assessment — a private partner whose Sansovi platform earns revenue from every GCC it helps set up. KDEM is lending its government-platform credibility to amplify a forecast it did not independently produce.
Two contextual points help calibrate expectations:
The 50-GCC target is modest relative to existing scale. Karnataka already hosts 1,100+ GCCs. Adding 50 over "the coming years" represents approximately 4.5% growth on the existing base. For comparison, Karnataka's own GCC Policy 2024-2029 targets 500 new GCCs by 2029 — ten times the GoodWorks MoU's headline number — suggesting the partnership is a tactical enabler, not the primary growth driver.
Enabler-partner MoUs are becoming a pattern. The Zyoin Group MoU earlier in 2026 followed a similar structure, as did an SBI partnership in May 2025 (News on Project, May 2025). Each adds outreach capacity but does not by itself guarantee net-new investment.
The practical question — whether these MoUs add genuinely new GCCs to Karnataka's pipeline or simply route existing demand through a specific partner — remains open. What is clear is that Karnataka is systematically stacking enabler partnerships to maintain its lead, rather than relying on organic growth alone.
What does the Sansovi GCC-as-a-Service model actually do?
Sansovi, launched in January 2025, is the GCC-focused division of GoodWorks Group. It offers a "full-stack GCC-as-a-Service platform" that helps multinational companies establish and scale India operations with speed, compliance, and confidence (GoodWorkLabs).
The platform covers four core pillars:
- Workspace and real estate: Premium office space, managed campuses, and co-working — leveraged from GoodWorks Cowork's 1 million+ sq ft under management.
- Technology and AI: AI-powered tools for operations, talent acquisition, and workflow automation.
- Talent acquisition and workforce management: AI-driven tools to source, assess, hire, and manage teams, using GoodWorks's NetSkill learning platform for upskilling.
- Legal and compliance: Regulatory adherence and smooth business operations.
GoodWorks Group was recognised by AIM Research as a top GCC service provider in India in its "Vendor Landscape of GCC Service Providers in India 2024" report (GoodWorkLabs, February 2025).
What this means for you
For enterprises considering a GCC in India: Karnataka's aggressive enabler-partner stacking means the support infrastructure for setting up a GCC has never been more developed. The Beyond Bengaluru incentives (rental reimbursement, EPF reimbursement, property tax reimbursement) make Tier-2 cities like Mysuru and Mangaluru financially attractive. The promise of Sansovi's "GCC-as-a-Service" model is that you can now outsource the operational complexity of setting up a centre — but evaluate whether a full-service enabler or a direct setup is more cost-effective for your specific scale. Other Indian states are competing too: IBM's FutureNow Centre in Vizag shows how Andhra Pradesh is also in the race.
For job seekers and tech professionals: The 12,500 direct high-skilled jobs projection — if realised — would create openings in AI, engineering, financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, and semiconductors. NetSkill's AI-powered upskilling platform is positioned as the talent pipeline, which suggests the programme is designed to train candidates ahead of demand. Watch for hiring in Beyond Bengaluru locations where incentives are richest for employers.
For investors and analysts: Read the GoodWorks numbers as vendor-supplied forward guidance, not as a government commitment. The absence of a hard deadline means there is no accountability trigger if the 50-GCC target is missed. The more reliable signal is the Karnataka GCC Policy 2024-2029's 12-14% CAGR target, which has government ownership. India's broader IT and tech investment landscape — including TCS, HCLTech, and Infosys investing in AI data centres — is the broader context in which these GCC numbers should be read.
FAQ
Q: What is the KDEM-GoodWorks GCC partnership? A: The Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) signed an MoU with GoodWorks Group on August 6, 2026, to attract 50 new Global Capability Centres and ₹5,000 crore in investment to Karnataka, using GoodWorks's Sansovi GCC-as-a-Service platform to help global companies set up and scale operations in India.
Q: How many jobs will the 50 new GCCs create? A: GoodWorks Group's own economic impact assessment projects 62,500 total jobs: 12,500 direct high-skilled jobs plus 50,000 indirect jobs across supporting industries. The projection also includes ₹2,250 crore in annual salaries and 1.25 million square feet of commercial real estate absorbed.
Q: Is the ₹5,000 crore figure a government guarantee? A: No. All the headline numbers — 50 GCCs, ₹5,000 crore, 62,500 jobs — come from GoodWorks Group's own assessment, not from an independent government study. GoodWorks is a private GCC-enabler whose Sansovi platform earns revenue from every new centre it helps set up, so the projections are vendor-supplied targets with no hard deadline attached.
Q: How many GCCs does Karnataka already have? A: Karnataka hosts over 1,100 GCCs, representing roughly 40% of India's total GCC base, generating over $22 billion in economic output and employing over 1.2 million people. India nationally hosts 1,700-2,100+ GCCs employing nearly 2 million professionals.
Q: What is the Karnataka GCC Policy 2024-2029? A: Launched in September 2024, it is India's first dedicated GCC policy, targeting 500 new GCCs, 3.5 lakh jobs, and $50 billion in economic output by 2029. It includes the Beyond Bengaluru initiative with incentives for Tier-2 cities, Global Innovation Districts, a Centre of Excellence for AI, and support for Nano GCCs (5-50 employees).
Q: What is the Sansovi platform? A: Sansovi is GoodWorks Group's GCC-as-a-Service platform, launched in January 2025. It offers a full-stack service covering workspace and real estate, technology and AI, talent acquisition and workforce management, and legal and compliance — designed to help global companies set up and scale India operations in one platform.
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