Start with a pod. Grow into your own centre.
A capability centre usually fails on sequencing, not ambition. An entity, a lease, and a country head get committed before anyone knows whether the operating model works across time zones. Ensaar runs it the other way round: a small team first, your own company later, once the work has proved it deserves one.
Four stages, and permission to stop at any of them.
Start with a pod
Three to fifteen people, employed through Ensaar, working only for you. No entity, no lease, no India registration. This is the step most teams should take first, because it tests the operating model before it costs anything structural.
Run it like a team, not a vendor contract
Your managers set the work. Ensaar handles employment, payroll, equipment, access, and the India-side operational load, and reports on it monthly.
Grow only when the pod has earned it
Add roles as the work proves out. A pod that cannot justify its next hire is a signal worth having early, and it costs far less to learn here than after an entity exists.
Convert to your own entity when the maths changes
Past roughly twenty to thirty people, your own subsidiary usually beats per-person fees. Ensaar sets it up, moves the team across with their service continuity intact, and hands you a running centre.
You manage the work. We carry India.
Ensaar runs
- Hiring, from role definition to signed offer
- Employment, payroll, and every statutory filing
- Laptops, access, and the security baseline you specify
- A named India operations contact, and monthly reporting
- Exits, replacements, and the paperwork around both
You run
- What the team works on, and in what order
- Day-to-day management, reviews, and standards
- Tools, repositories, and engineering practice
- Who gets hired, from the shortlist we bring
- The decision to convert into your own entity, and when
Priced per person, so the cost follows the team.
Of annual salary, which is one month, charged when the person joins. A 90-day replacement is included. Bring your own candidate and this does not apply.
Employment, payroll, and compliance through our Employer of Record. Salary and statutory contributions are passed through at cost.
Incorporation, registrations, and moving the team into your entity. Scoped and priced once we know the structure, because honest numbers here depend on your parent company.
What conversion actually involves.
Past roughly twenty to thirty people, per-person fees start to cost more than running a company, and the case for your own subsidiary becomes arithmetic rather than ambition. These are the facts that shape that decision.
- Structure
- Private limited, wholly owned
- Foreign parents can hold 100% under the automatic FDI route in most sectors, with no prior approval needed.
- Directors
- Two minimum
- At least one must have lived in India for 182 days or more in the previous calendar year. This is the requirement that most often delays a foreign parent.
- Incorporation
- 7 to 10 working days
- With clean documents. Government filing fees are nil up to Rs 15 lakh of authorised capital; stamp duty varies by state. Name rejections are the usual cause of a longer timeline.
- After funding
- Two filing deadlines
- Share allotment money must arrive within 60 days, and Form FC-GPR must be filed with the RBI within 30 days of allotment. Missing either is expensive to unwind.
- Transfer pricing
- 15.5% safe harbour
- A captive serving only its parent is paid cost plus a margin. Budget 2026 set a uniform 15.5% safe harbour margin for IT and ITeS and raised the eligibility threshold to Rs 2,000 crore, which takes most new centres out of dispute territory.
Verified 2026-09-23.
What gets asked before a team exists.
- What is a GCC, and do we need one?
- A global capability centre is a team in India that belongs to you rather than to a vendor, doing continuing work such as engineering, data, or support. You need one when the work is ongoing and you want the knowledge to stay in your organisation. If the work is a fixed project with an end date, a contract with a services firm is usually the better instrument.
- Can we start with fewer than ten people?
- Yes, and most companies should. Ensaar starts teams at three to fifteen people employed through our Employer of Record, which needs no Indian entity, no lease, and no local registration. It tests the operating model, the time zone overlap, and the hiring profile before anything structural is committed.
- When does our own Indian entity become cheaper than an EOR?
- Usually somewhere past twenty to thirty people. Below that, per-person fees are smaller than the cost and management attention of running an Indian company with its own filings, audit, and compliance calendar. Above it, the arithmetic reverses. The crossover depends on salary levels, so it is worth recalculating rather than assuming.
- How long does it take to incorporate an Indian subsidiary?
- Seven to ten working days with clean documents. A foreign parent can own 100% under the automatic FDI route in most sectors. You need at least two directors, one of whom must have been resident in India for 182 days or more in the previous calendar year, and that requirement is the most common cause of delay.
- How is a captive centre paid by its parent company?
- On a cost-plus basis: the India entity recovers its costs plus a margin, because it serves only its parent and has no external revenue. Budget 2026 set a uniform 15.5% safe harbour margin for IT and ITeS services and raised the eligibility threshold to Rs 2,000 crore, which keeps most new centres out of transfer pricing disputes.
- What does Ensaar charge to build an India team?
- Recruitment is 8.33% of annual salary per hire, which is one month, charged when the person joins, with a 90-day replacement. Employment through our Employer of Record is $199 per person per month, with salary and statutory costs passed through at cost. Converting to your own entity is quoted per engagement once the structure is known.