Pune rises from its engineering base to global innovation city

For decades, Pune has been known as a city shaped by academia, industry, and engineering. Its economic base was first anchored by automotive majors such as Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and Mercedes-Benz India, which in turn built a large ecosystem of component makers and engineering design talent. Other large manufacturing units grew through industrial groups such as Bharat Forge, Kirloskar and Thermax, which further strengthened the city’s engineering capabilities. Establishments like Defence Research and Development Organisation, College of Military Engineering, and High Energy Materials Research Laboratory created a skilled pool 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,” says Niket Karajagi, who is doing a doctorate in enterprise resilience at the Savitribai Phule Pune University.




Estimates by GCC consultancy Zinnov finds that about 21% of India’s GCCs have their presence in Pune, employing nearly 12% of the country’s GCC talent across engineering R&D (42%), IT (25%), and BPM (33%). A host of global engineering companies, financial institutions and others have their GCCs in the city.

Sameer Jain, executive VP at technology consulting firm Intraedge, says all the GCCs he was part of used Pune’s talent to design, prototype, build, test, and release highly innovative products in technology and engineering.

Piyush Kedia, co-founder & CEO of GCC consultancy InCommon, says when a bank or mobility firm sets up in Pune, it finds engineers who already understand safety, precision, and scale – “which is exactly what modern digital platforms demand.”

Rashmi Rawat, head of talent offerings & insights at GCC consultancy GatewAI, says the defining feature of Pune’s GCC ecosystem is simple: “The design-build-optimise culture here means Pune adopted applied AI faster, especially in supply chain, planning, and operations. This is not ticket delivery. It’s product thinking.”

Conceived in Pune, used worldwide

That product thinking is reflected across GCCs. Raja Jamalamadaka, MD of Roche Digital Centre of Excellence India, recently told us that their Pune centre is at the core of the future of healthcare for the Swiss pharma giant. The centre is 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, the France-based provider of 3D virtual environment software used to design just about everything, recently told us that their Pune centre is their largest development centre in the world. The CEO of the company’s India solutions lab, Sudarshan Mogasale, said what the world will see in engineering three or six years from now is what 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 said.

Sudish Lambodara Panicker, MD and head of BNY India, which has a large GCC in Pune, told us the GCC is working with data and algorithms to help shape the future of the American financial services giant, understand what its future markets and products should be.

Rashmi Rawat says solutions originating from Pune include AI-based optimisation engines that scaled across multiple global business units, industrial IoT platforms that moved from proof-of-concept to enterprise-wide deployments, and cloud-native data or streaming platforms that became reference architectures within their organisations.

Sachin Kulkarni, president of global services at US financial technology firm Fiserv, and whose Pune centre began in 2007, says Maharashtra is home to hundreds of engineering colleges that offer a rich talent pool for roles and skills the centre focuses on, including product development, data science, automation, full-stack developers, cloud computing, cybersecurity, AI/ML, Java, and more.

Divesh Agarwal, founder & CEO of offshore solutions firm Aumni, says their global clients prioritise system safety, operational efficiency, and fault tolerance, “and Pune excels in high-stakes domains like financial engineering, core banking, and cyber automotive.”

Need international airport

As more and more GCCs enter Pune, some are getting worried about the growth beginning to outpace its infrastructure. The biggest concern is poor international connectivity. The absence of a full-fledged international airport means most international travel is via Mumbai, which adds 4-6 hours to every global trip. “This affects leadership visibility and makes it harder to attract global talent," says Kailash Maisekar, country director for India at software solutions firm Idox Group.

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City’s product-thinking culture sets it apart

Pune’s industrial backbone – auto, defence, and manufacturing – trained an entire generation of engineers to think in systems, not slides. The same discipline that once designed engines now designs digital platforms, SDV (software defined vehicle) software, and AI-driven control systems.

Piyush Kedia, Co-founder & CEO, InCommon

Pune’s product-thinking culture is what sets it apart. Pune engineers think in systems, not just code, emphasising how legacy strengths from auto and industrial sectors directly support modern domains like digital twins, industrial IoT, predictive analytics, and platform optimisation workstreams.

Rashmi Rawat, Head, Talent Offerings & Insights, GatewAI

BFSI GCCs are increasingly favouring 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.

Sandeep Panat, Founder, Wizmatic

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.

Sameer Jain, Executive Vice-President, Intraedge

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 modernisation, and digital twins – align with global technology priorities and reflect Pune’s position as an innovation-led engineering hub.

Namita Adavi, Partner, Zinnov

Pune airport is already operating near saturation, and that directly affects one-stop international routings, cargo capacity and even slot availability for global leadership travel. That is why Purandar, the Chhatrapati Sambhaji Raje International Airport, is absolutely critical for the region. If we accelerate Purandar, we can meaningfully upgrade Pune’s global connectivity and give our GCC ecosystem the cargo and international access it urgently needs.

Sangramsinh Pawar, Founder & CEO, Uttung GCC

Pune’s GCCs are uniquely positioned to bridge IT and OT (operational technology) capabilities at scale.

Vikram Puranik, Senior Vice-President, GlobalLogic

Pune GCCs have delivered global product modules, risk and analytics platforms for banking clients, automotive control and telematics software, and full-stack SaaS modules for their parent companies.

Niket Karajagi, Vice-Chair, CII Pune GCC Forum

Major GCCs in Pune

BNY Mellon, HSBC, Barclays, Vodafone, Deutsche Bank, Mastercard, Cummins, Dassault Systemes, UBS, ZS Associates, Citibank, Siemens PLM, Skoda, Credit Suisse, Maersk, Roche