What happened

The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog, and Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) convened the GCC Conclave on Innovation 2026 in Bengaluru. The conclave brought together leaders from Global Capability Centres (GCCs), research and development heads, innovation leaders, incubators, startup ecosystem enablers, and policymakers.

The stated goal was to deepen collaboration across India’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. The discussion linked school innovation through Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs), incubation through Atal Incubation Centres (AICs) and Atal Community Innovation Centres (ACICs), and startup scale-up through the upcoming Atal Acceleration Centres for Scale-up of Startups (AACESS) industrial accelerator initiative.

Background and earlier position

AIM is the flagship innovation mission under NITI Aayog. AIM runs a school innovation layer through ATLs and supports startup incubation through AICs and ACICs. STPI has long supported India’s technology ecosystem through infrastructure, policy enablement, and entrepreneurship support, especially around technology parks and centres of entrepreneurship.

The GCC sector has already become a major part of India’s technology and product-engineering landscape. The conclave speakers presented GCCs as potential co-innovators rather than only cost-efficient service centres.