GCCs are shaping global healthcare strategies and future leaders

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[Music]

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Welcome to our discussion on the Indian

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GCC growth story I'm Gautam Srinivasan and

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Today we are going to talk about a

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sector that has been generating $46

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billion in Revenue annually and is.

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projected to double its GDP share to 2%.

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By 2030 we are referring to Global

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capability centers or gcc's which have

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grown by 11% between 2015 and 2023.

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becoming indispensable to their parents

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companies by integrating Global.

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expertise with local talent now one of

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the most prominent gcc's in India is.

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Optum India the global capability Center

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of United Health Group a fortune 4

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company committed to helping people live.

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healthier lives and helping make the

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Health system work better for everyone

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with over two decades of presence in

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India Optum India delivers quality out

1:00

comes across the Continuum of healthcare

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now to explore how gcc's are shaping the

1:06

future of this sector we have with us

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Uma Ratnam Krishnan managing director

1:12

at Optum India for a bit of a background

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in her role Umar sets the company's

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Vision across the country helping teams

1:19

deliver distinctive value across all

1:22

businesses now Umar started her working

1:24

Life as a diplomat with the Indian

1:26

Foreign Service prior to joining Optum

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um served as the CEO and MD of Barclay's

1:32

Global Services now over the last three

1:35

decades she has had senior leadership

1:37

roles in NatWest in the UK ANZ green

1:40

Bank HDFC bank and Polaris software om

1:44

is a management graduate from the Indian

1:46

Institute of Management Bangalore and

1:49

followed this up with a woman in

1:50

leadership program at Harvard Business

1:53

School and a strategy program at won and

1:56

we're looking forward to her insights

1:58

into the strategy and challenges of

2:01

gcc's in India so let's have a

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conversation with

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[Music]

2:15

Kumar it's time now for a deep dive into

2:18

India's GCC ecosystem with Optum’s Uma

2:22

Ratnam great to have you with us and thank

2:24

you for giving us an overview of

2:27

what's going on let me first start on

2:31

understanding what is Optum India

2:33

because there's a fascinating story

2:35

about these capacity centers which are

2:37

transforming Global business I want to

2:39

know what is Optum doing sure uh first

2:43

um Gautam uh thanks for having me uh Optum

2:47

India is a health Innovation Global

2:50

capability Center of United Health Group

2:53

uh a fortune 4

2:55

company uh we actually create value in

2:59

an integrated model across the entire

3:02

Health ecosystem cost quality and most

3:06

importantly uh Innovation right thinking

3:10

about how we can do every single thing

3:12

better uh so that we make things better

3:15

for the people that we serve which is

3:17

primarily our mission is to actually

3:20

help people live healthier lives and

3:22

making the health system work better for

3:24

everyone as Optum India we've been in

3:27

India for more than two decades and our

3:30

presence is scaled and we have a lot of

3:32

capability and we're therefore a very

3:34

integral part of the Enterprise cutting

3:37

across all of the areas uh that we work

3:39

in in India again we're present in five

3:42

cities uh NOA uh Gurugram Hyderabad

3:46

Chennai and Bangalore uh lastly about

3:49

our people a little bit about our people

3:51

I think we are very um Keen to get the

3:54

best talent in and for our people we

3:56

give them a proposition which is about

3:58

uh caring for them connecting them and

4:01

growing together and in the community we

4:04

operate in where we live and work we are

4:06

a Force for good uh collaborating uh

4:09

with people who do work in the community

4:11

the end of the day that's what matters

4:13

and uh taking forward some of the points

4:15

that you mentioned especially the fact

4:18

that uh well gcc's are bringing together

4:21

Talent Innovation and cost benefits for

4:24

the HQ and of course for today's

4:26

world where everything is global that is

4:28

more and more important

4:30

considering the presence of over two

4:32

decades as you mentioned in India I want

4:35

you to give us this bird's eye view of

4:37

how the GCC ecosystem has evolved in

4:40

India yeah I mean it's been a

4:42

fascinating Journey India has been at

4:44

the heart of this GCC ecosystem growth

4:47

right uh it's grown over the last 20

4:50

years but the interesting thing is the

4:52

pace of growth continues I mean we're

4:54

today as a GCC Global capability Center

4:57

ecosystem we're about 45 billion

5:00

dollar and that's actually expected to

5:02

grow up to about 110 billion uh you know

5:06

uh shortly uh in the next 5 year 5 to 7

5:08

years by 2030 so the pace of growth

5:11

continues uh also um 20% of Forbes to

5:15

100 companies have GCC in India that's

5:18

expected to grow to about 50% by

5:21

2030 uh what's driving this right Talent

5:24

is actually what's underpinning this

5:26

growth uh talent in many ways and in

5:29

many areas now what's also important is

5:32

in this Evolution uh we've seen many

5:35

more Global and Senior roles in India

5:38

and that's going to continue to grow so

5:40

what that means is leadership roles and

5:42

Global roles into India we're expecting

5:44

to have about 20,000 roles uh by 2030

5:48

and for me personally uh about 30%

5:50

are expected to be women because gcc's

5:53

Drive um you know inclusion diversity

5:56

and all of those so which is great for

5:58

senior and Global Leadership ship out of

6:00

India let's come to the footprint of

6:03

gcc's in India right our Seven Cities

6:07

Bombay Pune other than the five I spoke

6:10

about earlier which is the NCR region

6:12

Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai uh probably

6:15

has about 90% of the footprint but

6:18

what's also interesting is we are now

6:20

with the growth of gcc's we're now

6:22

starting to see um the second level

6:25

cities I wouldn't call them second level

6:27

but cities other than these also

6:29

actually starting to uh grow uh the GCC

6:33

footprint for example you have jar you

6:35

have Indore you have Allahabad you have Kota

6:38

Vishakhapatnam the new hubs of the new

6:40

hubs right because at the end of the day

6:42

we have talent everywhere and so that is

6:46

again sort of fueling uh the actual

6:49

growth of

6:50

gcc's um and you know we have 1.66

6:54

million people today employed in gcc's

6:56

that's expected to grow up to 4 and A2

6:58

million Again by 2030 so and about

7:02

50% of gcc's globally come to India as

7:05

in you know 100 out of 100 50 come to

7:08

India for a footprint so you can

7:10

actually say that you know the GCC

7:11

system and is now starting to be

7:13

actually recognized uh as a separate U

7:17

you know uh segment capability uh which

7:20

drives many things right and of course

7:22

it's evolved and we can talk a little

7:24

bit about how it's evolved uh as well

7:27

and talking about Evolution you know at

7:29

the end of the it's unlocking capability

7:31

unlocking possibility and as you

7:33

mentioned the talent reach is now

7:35

finally going to be actually implemented

7:38

where for tier 2 tier three areas as

7:40

this ecosystem evolves the talent which

7:43

was latent at a particular point in time

7:46

now becomes on stream all right taking

7:48

forward this point on Evolution we've

7:50

been hearing a lot about GCC 4.0 lately

7:54

if you can demystify this for us and

7:57

play it into how the ecosystem evolution

8:01

is now going to go to the next level

8:03

with GCC

8:04

4.0 so uh let's take a two decade step

8:09

back right rewind yeah rewind to a

8:11

couple of decades ago the GCC uh concept

8:15

really started as a cost Arbitrage or an

8:19

opportunity at for lower cost uh you

8:22

know uh

8:23

capabilities quickly that then once you

8:26

actually establish proof of concept that

8:29

quickly moved into can we deliver at

8:32

scale which is you know repetitive not

8:34

missing what you said you would miss

8:36

doing this day in and day out but at

8:38

scale now that was the next phase then

8:40

it quickly moved on to uh a third phase

8:43

which was really about managing

8:45

portfolios which is not just one kind of

8:47

process a multiple set of processes

8:50

across multiple sets of businesses so

8:52

it's about portfolio and that was when

8:54

we started seeing Global roles in India

8:57

like leadership roles in India for a

8:58

certain end areas and then we are

9:01

currently sitting at uh what I would say

9:03

4.0 which is really uh We're translating

9:06

into high value work impactful work

9:10

Innovation and transformation hubs right

9:13

now let me unpack that a little bit on

9:15

what Innovation and transformation yeah

9:17

what does that mean right so and

9:20

again it's important to understand that

9:22

this is U across many Industries right

9:25

and we and actually gcc's um do a wide

9:29

range of types of activities software

9:32

engineering technology analytics

9:34

operations processes R&D and across a

9:38

very wide ranging um set of Industries

9:40

you know starting from Pharma Healthcare

9:43

Financial Services retail Aerospace oil

9:46

and gas it sort of um you know where

9:50

it's everywhere so it cuts across

9:52

Industries and spectrums at

9:55

4.0 uh companies global companies are

9:58

actually looking at their gcc's to be

10:01

their transformation driver right to

10:05

actually create new products to actually

10:07

innovate uh have breakthroughs in terms

10:10

of the way they do things R&D leading to

10:13

new product and revenue streams uh

10:15

driving some of that large

10:17

transformation across uh the companies

10:20

um sitting out of the global locations

10:22

right so those are the kind of things

10:24

that are actually starting to happen and

10:26

like I said given that it has spread

10:28

over so many Industries not everybody's

10:31

at 4.0 right and that's an important

10:33

thing to understand depending on when

10:35

you began depending on which industry

10:37

you are you're potentially you know you

10:39

could be in any of these phases but

10:41

clearly when nobody's in phase one

10:42

because anybody who comes in now knows

10:44

that delivery at scale can happen and

10:46

all of those good things but it also and

10:49

and there were some Front Runners right

10:50

banking Financial Services grew very

10:52

quickly some software companies or

10:54

product companies grew very quickly in

10:56

the global capability Center model so

10:58

it's a bit of a

11:00

a mix but what is important here is the

11:03

evidence and the

11:05

demonstration uh that gcc's can become

11:08

pivotal to transforming and innovating

11:11

for Global businesses it's an idea that

11:13

works that's why we are seeing it so

11:14

widespread among all these sectors right

11:16

and banking Financial Services has

11:19

always been at the Forefront of

11:20

innovation but looking at the fact that

11:22

Health Care Aerospace all these

11:24

traditional sectors are picking it up uh

11:27

and taking it forward

11:31

and as you mention setting from a bit

11:35

paradigm toing Excellence at scale to

11:38

where now it is driving the engine of

11:40

innovation and value for Enterprises

11:43

truly we are we are just scratching the

11:46

surface right now in terms of value what

11:48

would you say to that yeah no absolutely

11:50

because we can see the because the

11:53

opportunity uh for Innovation is huge in

11:57

some Industries it's more than other

11:59

others right so if Innovation is

12:01

fundament I'll give you a couple of

12:02

examples of how you know some of the key

12:04

levers we've used in Optum in our Global

12:06

capability Center one and this is really

12:09

important because it's about being

12:11

customer Centric now Healthcare is

12:13

personal right each individual is

12:15

different uh and we're seeing uh

12:17

that more and more C uh consumers of

12:19

healthcare services want to be uh you

12:22

know able to understand and manage their

12:24

experience who's their care provider who

12:27

do they want to go to how do they get

12:28

information about their health records

12:30

etc. etc. so one of the big things that we

12:32

do and that's how you can actually

12:34

create Innovation value which is make

12:36

sure that our people understand the

12:38

consumer right the consumer centricity

12:41

of the work that you're doing who's the

12:43

consumer you're delivering to so it's

12:44

not just about okay we'll do something

12:46

and get on with it it's about really

12:48

understanding what the consumer

12:49

experiences the second part is that uh

12:52

gcc's have a unique strength which is

12:55

they have many functions sitting

12:58

together in the Global location for the

13:00

global company for example we have

13:02

technology teams we have data teams we

13:04

have Finance teams we have operational

13:06

teams so this is a great opportunity to

13:09

bring to bear the power of all of them

13:12

together and to actually solve a problem

13:14

and come up with an innovation right so

13:17

how do we get Tech and Ops to work

13:18

together how do we get data and

13:20

analytics and the operations teams or

13:22

the product teams to work together and

13:24

they actually result in very powerful

13:26

outcomes right so actually leveraging

13:29

the full power of what you can uh bring

13:31

to bear to a problem right that's

13:33

something that we've done uh we are

13:35

conscious about and we do um you know

13:38

regularly uh the third one is really

13:40

about nurturing our talent I mean simply

13:42

put you know India's Talent story we

13:44

know we're you know more than 2third of

13:46

the population is Young uh we have among

13:49

the largest stem population in the world

13:52

uh but also in a um GCC like um Optum we

13:57

have the ability to not just hire stem

13:59

Talent we also have the ability to hire

14:01

non- stem Talent you know life sciences

14:03

physical sciences clinical pharmer

14:06

because those are different types of

14:08

talent but our fundamental job is to get

14:10

the right talent in through the door and

14:12

we make sure that we get the right

14:14

talent for the right problem and the

14:16

last one really important if you

14:18

need to get to phase four or 4.0 of the

14:21

GCC model which is to work very closely

14:25

with global teams because we need to we

14:28

are part of the organization we're an

14:30

integral part of the organization so the

14:32

more we're connected with the global

14:34

business teams understand the business

14:35

and day-to-day work with them that's

14:38

when we can move the Strategic

14:40

objectives of the organization forward

14:42

in a in a in a way that's completely uh

14:44

integrated you have summarized the

14:46

definition of a perfect Enterprise where

14:49

all the cogs are working in tandem in

14:52

service of the customer because we truly

14:54

are in the era of hyper personalization

14:57

at scale for the customer

14:59

whether it's Healthcare or whether it's

15:01

other Industries and the fact that gcc's

15:03

are unlocking capabilities for a lot of

15:06

the global players to tap into India's

15:08

demographic dividend and in a sense

15:11

build their Enterprise Value to the

15:13

customer it takes it forward from there

15:15

now taking that point into consideration

15:18

though I want to understand from you

15:20

considering you've been a leader with

15:22

vast amounts of experience what is the

15:24

leadership mindset required both

15:27

globally and in India to sustain this

15:31

growth because at the end of the day you

15:33

need a top down approach as well in

15:35

terms of evangelizing this whole process

15:38

what would you say look

15:40

fundamentally um I've seen that

15:43

leadership is about uh getting the right

15:46

Talent inspiring them and you know

15:48

buying into the vision and delivering

15:50

what we can having said that there are

15:52

some nuances in the GCC world uh and

15:56

you know I worked on both sides I worked

15:57

on the commercial side like a proper

15:59

regular front facing business and I

16:01

worked in a GCC and there are some

16:03

nuances in this business which uh have

16:06

certain specific asks of leadership uh

16:09

in global locations right uh first and

16:13

foremost fundamentally it's about

16:15

understanding the business and getting

16:17

the right Talent right because it's not

16:20

one business a large GCC or a scale GCC

16:24

supports many of the global businesses

16:26

of that organization particularly for so

16:29

you need to have an understanding of

16:31

what's the right talent to bring in for

16:34

the things that need to be delivered

16:35

right and obviously make sure that uh

16:40

give them the tools give them the

16:41

training we spend a lot of time on

16:43

training because you know you need to

16:45

understand the global customer the

16:46

global business so make sure that we

16:48

have all the tools and invest a lot in

16:50

it and then just get out of the way and

16:52

get them to deliver right that's

16:54

fundamental however the kind of

16:56

leadership that you need could depend on

16:58

the geography

16:59

on the scale and on the complexity of

17:02

these uh processes or areas that uh you

17:05

support um so the complexity will also

17:08

Drive the kind of uh leadership that you

17:11

will need uh in a particular Global

17:13

location could you expand on that so for

17:15

example if you take a health care

17:18

company we probably provide uh you know

17:21

we support a lot of our business areas

17:24

one is the actual Healthcare delivery

17:26

side we also support uh what we call

17:29

Insight which is technology data tools

17:32

managed services for the healthcare

17:33

ecosystem so that's a lot of technology

17:35

and data and analytics so the kind of

17:37

talent you need there is different on

17:39

the other side we have the Optum um care

17:41

which is clinical uh Talent right and

17:44

then we also have farmer Talent so it's

17:46

a it's a combine and then we have the uh

17:49

the insurance side which is uh the

17:51

United Health Care side which is claims

17:54

uh you know processing that's

17:55

operational Talent so it's a combination.

17:57

of operational expertise Health uh

17:59

knowledge uh and then data technology

18:02

and so on so you bring a wide

18:04

range of talent together to work on this

18:06

right so the T as leadership we need to

18:09

Be clear about what kind of talent you

18:11

need to bring in right then two other

18:13

things I'll call out which is other than

18:15

making sure once you get them in uh make

18:18

sure that you know clear the

18:19

impediment so they can actually because

18:21

in a global concept uh in a global

18:23

organization it does need a lot of

18:26

working with the Global Partners all

18:28

right make sure things happen and that's

18:30

needs a lot of influencing skills and

18:32

lot of uh you know um ability to engage

18:35

and create relationships at a global

18:37

level two other things I'll call out one

18:40

is for a GCC leader it's really

18:43

important to have a much more

18:45

broad-based uh global social perspective

18:48

broader perspective right not just a

18:51

single Market very localized single

18:52

Market perspective uh because you need

18:55

to understand how Global businesses

18:57

function you're working in different

18:58

different domains you need to understand

19:01

uh you know Global Talent comes in

19:02

diverse packages right you can't deal

19:04

with a talent sitting in you know us or

19:08

wherever else in the same way that you

19:09

potentially uh manage uh Talent sitting

19:12

here so you need to understand that the

19:15

diversity and the business uh across

19:18

the board and that's really important

19:19

personally I also feel for gcc's uh and

19:22

I say this quite a lot which is you need

19:24

something called a growth mindset as a

19:26

leader right which is things are

19:28

changing so quickly you need to be agile.

19:31

and keep learning and keep and just be

19:32

curious about learning Blue Sky

19:34

completely just you know okay how do I

19:37

solve this problem maybe my last time I

19:38

did it could have been different

19:40

something could have moved on here right

19:42

but just that ability to have a growth

19:43

mindset all right a growth mindset and a

19:46

global mindset that's how you take the

19:49

GCC Revolution forward before we sign

19:52

off on our conversation um your

19:55

recommendations on growing this

19:57

ecosystem even further because as you

19:59

mentioned earlier 45 billion currently

20:02

$110 billion and that still looks less

20:05

considering the potential that gcc's can

20:08

bring to the table for Global

20:10

Enterprises what are some

20:11

recommendations that you would suggest

20:14

uh for growing this ecosystem better

20:16

sure uh look in terms of numbers uh as

20:20

well the number of GCC setting up uh you

20:23

know capability centers is growing today

20:25

we're at about 1,600 there or

20:28

thereabouts we're expected to get to

20:30

2,400 to 2,500 gcc's which itself is a

20:33

significant growth over the next by 2030

20:37

now to continue to add value and to

20:40

continue to drive value out of the

20:42

global capability centers I think

20:44

there's a few things that gcc's need to

20:48

think about and focus on the other

20:50

side the environment needs to help us

20:53

along whether it's policies or

20:55

infrastructure or whatever so I'll talk

20:57

I I'll kind of cover both of those

20:59

um uh you know the key points in both of

21:02

those first the gcc's themselves when

21:04

we're moving towards what's Innovation

21:07

transformation uh it's really important

21:09

to understand the areas of focus and

21:12

potentially set up maybe a center of

21:14

excellence or you know um a h incubation

21:18

hub for example Cloud capability for

21:20

example digital capability R&D in

21:23

certain areas right so if the gcc's

21:26

themselves um focus on the areas that

21:29

they want to actually drive value out of

21:30

depending on the company the business

21:32

they then need to set up those uh

21:35

centers of excellence uh you know is

21:37

the thing I would say to kind of Drive

21:39

continue to drive that value second

21:41

thing is um the talent um you know more

21:45

than half our graduates come from non-

21:47

Seven Cities that I spoke about

21:49

initially and to continue to build on

21:52

this scale we need to make sure that we

21:55

develop uh another set of locations from

21:58

which the GCC can it's already started

22:01

but we need to continue to do that you

22:02

know for skill diversity lower costs

22:05

because that is important I mean it's

22:07

still a driver right so lower cost uh

22:10

acquisition of the right talent and

22:12

making sure there's some uh areas where

22:14

you can actually expand into at lower

22:16

risk and so on so the second level of uh

22:19

locations that um we need to start

22:21

looking at the third for the uh gcc's is

22:25

about building the culture because this

22:28

is a model which is a front to back

22:30

model you know you're fully integrated

22:32

with your global company so you need to

22:34

build the right culture uh and the right

22:36

right uh approach and business knowledge

22:39

so that the more you're connected the

22:41

more you work front to back the better

22:43

your outcomes will be all right and the

22:46

last one is to keep talking about and

22:49

demonstrating the value that uh these

22:52

locations can actually uh deliver right

22:55

uh on the other side to help move this

22:58

along

22:59

uh we would absolutely require support

23:01

and help whether it's in policies

23:03

whether it's in incentives whether it's

23:05

recognition uh because the gcc's play a

23:08

big role in terms of you know

23:09

contributing to the economic human

23:11

capital Innovation environmental uh

23:14

capabilities practices Global practices

23:17

so uh we need um continued help and

23:20

support in terms of uh policies and

23:22

infrastructure from the locations and

23:24

the governments uh you know in the

23:26

states that uh we operate in so yeah

23:28

that would be sort of a summary to say I

23:30

think there's a lot of opportunity uh

23:33

and uh you know we need to do the things

23:35

we need to do to realize it miles to go

23:38

before we sleep and it's amazing to see

23:40

the transformation that is taking place

23:42

both in the back and in the front office

23:44

and it's perfect that there is an

23:46

ecosystem solution now for tapping into

23:49

India's demographic dividend and making

23:52

sure that it is actually useful for not

23:55

just the India growth story but for the

23:57

global growth story well that was the

23:59

Deep dive into the GCC ecosystem with

24:03

Umar Ratnam Krishnan thank you so much

24:05

for joining thank you nice conversation

24:08

thank you g thank you so much well that

24:11

was Uma sharing her insightful

24:13

perspectives on the growth and impact of

24:16

gcc's in India now her expertise has

24:19

shed light on the transformative

24:21

potential of this sector and how it is.

24:23

poised to double its share in India’s.

24:26

GDP by 2030 the combination of global

24:30

expertise and local talent as

24:31

highlighted is indeed driving remarkable.

24:34

Innovations and value creation well her

24:37

vision and leadership in steering this.

24:40

growth is remarkable and it's clear that.

24:42

the future of gcc's in India is bright.

24:45

promising significant economic

24:47

contributions and career opportunities

24:50

that was a special presentation brought

24:52

to you by Mint I'm your host Gautam

24:54

Srinivasan and thank you to all the viewers

24:56

for tuning in have a great day

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[Music]

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[Applause]

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