Pune's Transformation: From Engineering Hub to Global Innovation City

For decades, Pune has been recognized as a city driven by academia, industry, and engineering. Its economic foundation was initially laid by automotive giants such as Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, and Mercedes-Benz India, which created a substantial ecosystem of component manufacturers and engineering design talent.

Other large manufacturing units, including Bharat Forge, Kirloskar, and Thermax, further strengthened the city’s engineering capabilities. Institutions like the Defence Research and Development Organisation, College of Military Engineering, and High Energy Materials Research Laboratory have contributed to a skilled workforce in electronics, materials science, and precision systems.

This long-standing mix of automotive, defence, and manufacturing expertise is the reason GCCs (Global Capability Centres) trust Pune with complex design, digital engineering, analytics, and operations work, according to Niket Karajagi, a doctoral candidate in enterprise resilience at Savitribai Phule Pune University. Estimates by GCC consultancy Zinnov show that about 21% of India’s GCCs are located in Pune, employing nearly 12% of the country’s GCC talent across engineering R&D (42%), IT (25%), and BPM (33%).

Sameer Jain, Executive Vice President at technology consulting firm Intraedge, emphasizes that all the GCCs he has been part of have leveraged Pune’s talent to design, prototype, build, test, and release highly innovative products in technology and engineering. Piyush Kedia, Co-Founder and CEO of GCC consultancy InCommon, adds that when a bank or mobility firm sets up in Pune, it finds engineers who already understand safety, precision, and scale—qualities essential for modern digital platforms.

Rashmi Rawat, Head of Talent Offerings & Insights at GCC consultancy GatewAI, highlights that the defining feature of Pune’s GCC ecosystem is its design-build-optimize culture. This culture has enabled Pune to adopt applied AI faster, especially in supply chain, planning, and operations. Raja Jamalamadaka, MD of Roche Digital Centre of Excellence India, notes that their Pune centre is at the core of the future of healthcare for the Swiss pharma giant, focusing on leveraging technology, especially AI/ML, to predict disease, identify patients at risk, diagnose disease early, and improve chronic disease management.

Pascal Daloz, CEO of Dassault Systemes, a France-based provider of 3D virtual environment software, mentions that their Pune centre is their largest development centre globally. Sudarshan Mogasale, CEO of the company’s India solutions lab, states that what the world will see in engineering three or six years from now is being built today in India. “From embedding AI in design tools to building virtual cities and digital factories, our teams are transforming how products are imagined and built,” he says.

Sudish Lambodara Panicker, MD and Head of BNY India, which has a large GCC in Pune, explains that the GCC is working with data and algorithms to help shape the future of the American financial services giant, identifying future markets and products. Rashmi Rawat points out that solutions originating from Pune include AI-based optimization engines, industrial IoT platforms, and cloud-native data or streaming platforms.

Sachin Kulkarni, President of Global Services at US financial technology firm Fiserv, whose Pune centre began in 2007, highlights that Maharashtra is home to hundreds of engineering colleges, providing a rich talent pool for roles in product development, data science, automation, full-stack developers, cloud computing, cybersecurity, AI/ML, and more. Divesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO of offshore solutions firm Aumni, adds that their global clients prioritize system safety, operational efficiency, and fault tolerance, areas where Pune excels, particularly in financial engineering, core banking, and cyber automotive.

However, as more GCCs enter Pune, some are concerned about the city’s infrastructure, especially its poor international connectivity. The absence of a full-fledged international airport means most international travel is via Mumbai, adding 4-6 hours to every global trip. Kailash Maisekar, Country Director for India at software solutions firm Idox Group, notes that this affects leadership visibility and makes it harder to attract global talent.

Pune’s industrial backbone—auto, defence, and manufacturing—has trained an entire generation of engineers to think in systems, not just slides. The same discipline that once designed engines now designs digital platforms, SDV (software-defined vehicle) software, and AI-driven control systems. Pune’s product-thinking culture is what sets it apart. Pune engineers think in systems, not just code, emphasizing how legacy strengths from auto and industrial sectors directly support modern domains like digital twins, industrial IoT, predictive analytics, and platform optimization workstreams.

BFSI GCCs are increasingly favoring Pune due to lower real estate costs, campus scalability, and access to finance-tech talent. While Mumbai remains the front office for financial institutions, Pune is fast becoming the engine room for their global operations, analytics, and digital transformation work. The co-existence of engineering and technology talent in Pune has led to an explosion of GCC setups that are pivoted around product and engineering innovation, particularly in areas such as automation, Industry 4.0, AI, and smart factory.

Around 21% of India’s GCCs are based in Pune, employing nearly 12% of the country’s GCC workforce across engineering R&D, IT, and BPM functions. The city’s rising focus areas—agentic and physical AI, platform modernization, and digital twins—align with global technology priorities and reflect Pune’s position as an innovation-led engineering hub. Pune’s GCCs are uniquely positioned to bridge IT and OT (operational technology) capabilities at scale.