Jammu Tawi, Oct 09: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today called upon industry leaders to explore Jammu and Kashmir as an emerging destination for Global Capability Centres (GCCs), emphasising that the government is committed to creating a competitive, business-friendly ecosystem that attracts investment, fosters innovation and generates meaningful employment.
“We have to make Jammu and Kashmir a place that is competitive, a place that is attractive to do business, a place where you can make money, and a place where we can compete with the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities around the country,” the Chief Minister said while addressing the inaugural session of the J&K GCC Summit 2026 at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Jammu. He addressed the gathering virtually from New Delhi.
The two-day summit, themed ‘Unlocking J&K’s GCC Potential for Building Growth Ecosystem and Catalysing Investment’, brings together representatives of government, industry and academia to explore opportunities for developing Jammu and Kashmir’s presence in India’s expanding GCC ecosystem.
Highlighting the evolution of GCCs in India, the Chief Minister said that what began as call centres and business process outsourcing operations had evolved into centres of innovation, talent, capability and enterprise.
“The story of GCCs in India is a story of evolution, as is the story of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said, and added that the transformation of GCCs demonstrated how capabilities and value addition could create new economic opportunities.
Drawing a parallel with Jammu and Kashmir’s own journey over the past three to three-and-a-half decades, Omar Abdullah said the fact that the region was now being discussed as a potential destination for GCC investments reflected a significant change in the opportunities being explored.
Acknowledging that Jammu and Kashmir continued to face a perception challenge arising from its past, he said the government was working to address it through investments across industry, manufacturing, agriculture, tourism and other emerging sectors, including GCCs.
The Chief Minister said Jammu and Kashmir need not replicate the growth trajectories of established GCC hubs such as Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai, but could learn from their experiences and position itself to compete with Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
“Coming late to the party is disappointing, but it is not always disadvantageous. We can learn from the experiences of others. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We just have to use it better,” CM Omar observed.
He pointed out that the rising cost of doing business in larger cities had created opportunities for emerging destinations. Jammu and Kashmir, he said, could explore this space by building on its inherent advantages and offering an attractive environment for businesses to establish and expand their operations.
The Chief Minister said the success of the summit should not be measured by an immediate target of establishing a large number of GCCs, but by the creation of a foundation for sustainable growth.
Expressing hope that the summit would mark the beginning of a long-term association between Jammu and Kashmir and the GCC industry, he said emerging technologies could open up opportunities for new destinations, including the Union Territory.