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NEW DELHI | 15 July 2026: Reflecting a broader evolution in global healthcare operating models, IHH Healthcare has outlined plans to establish India as a strategic hub for Global Business Services (GBS), enterprise operations and health technology capabilities supporting its international healthcare network.
The initiative marks an important shift in how healthcare organizations are approaching scale and operational efficiency. Traditionally viewed primarily as a destination for clinical delivery and healthcare consumption, India is increasingly emerging as the operational and digital backbone supporting global healthcare enterprises through shared services, analytics, technology and business operations capabilities. For the broader capability ecosystem, this development marks the arrival of healthcare as one of the next major growth frontiers for Global Capability Centres (GCCs) and GBS organizations.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- Healthcare GBS Expansion: India is being positioned as a strategic hub for enterprise services supporting international healthcare operations.
- Capability Consolidation: Shared services, digital operations and business support functions are expected to be progressively centralized and standardized.
- Health-Tech Integration: Investments in digital health innovation and emerging care technologies continue to accelerate alongside operational scale.
- Clinical and Digital Convergence: Physical hospital expansion is increasingly being supported by investments in enterprise technology, analytics and digital platforms.
- Long-Term Market Commitment: India remains central to IHH Healthcare’s healthcare delivery and enterprise capability strategy.
Headquartered in Malaysia and dual-listed on Bursa Malaysia and the Singapore Exchange, IHH Healthcare is among the world’s largest integrated healthcare providers, operating leading healthcare brands across Asia and Europe, including Mount Elizabeth, Gleneagles, Parkway, Acibadem and Fortis Healthcare. In India, its presence is anchored by Fortis Healthcare and Agilus Diagnostics, providing the group with significant capabilities across hospitals, diagnostics and specialized clinical services.
THE CAPABILITY PIVOT: BUILDING THE OPERATING BACKBONE OF GLOBAL HEALTHCARE
Managing a multinational healthcare network spanning multiple countries requires far more than clinical excellence. Modern healthcare systems generate enormous volumes of operational data and require seamless coordination across finance, procurement, patient administration, technology platforms and regulatory environments.
As healthcare organizations continue expanding internationally, Global Business Services models are increasingly becoming central to delivering operational consistency, scalability and cost efficiency. Rather than maintaining fragmented local support structures across geographies, healthcare enterprises are progressively consolidating non-clinical and technology-intensive capabilities into centralized operating hubs. While the exact functional scope of IHH’s India operations continues to evolve, healthcare GBS typically manage capabilities such as:
- Revenue Cycle Management (RCM): Managing medical billing, claims administration, insurance reconciliation and payment processes across markets and payer ecosystems.
- Healthcare Data and Digital Platforms: Supporting Electronic Health Records (EHR), interoperability frameworks, healthcare analytics and compliance with evolving data privacy requirements.
- Enterprise Procurement and Supply Chain: Managing sourcing and procurement processes for pharmaceuticals, medical devices, consumables and hospital infrastructure.
- Finance, HR and Shared Services: Delivering standardized enterprise support services across multiple healthcare markets and business units.
Commenting on the initiative, Quek Sin Kwok, Group Chief Business Technology Officer at IHH Healthcare, highlighted the strategic importance of shared services in supporting future growth.
One of our major initiatives over the coming months and into the next year is to consolidate some of our shared services to drive greater economies of scale. We are looking at establishing shared services centres in India to support our operations across other markets. India will serve as the hub for these capabilities, and we are making significant investments in this area.
PHYSICAL SCALE MEETS DIGITAL CAPABILITY
The expansion of enterprise capabilities is occurring alongside continued investments in hospitals, diagnostics and clinical infrastructure. Through Fortis Healthcare, IHH continues to pursue a brownfield-led growth strategy focused on strengthening its presence across key Indian healthcare markets including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Punjab.
India remains a very important core market for IHH. Through our healthcare platforms, you will continue to see us make significant investments in hospitals, diagnostics and increasingly health technology.
Healthcare providers increasingly recognize that future competitiveness will depend as much on digital capabilities as on physical infrastructure. This explains the growing emphasis on digital health innovation, AI-enabled diagnostics, patient engagement platforms, healthcare analytics and technology-enabled care delivery models. IHH’s innovation initiatives and healthcare technology investments reflect this broader industry shift toward integrating clinical delivery with digital operating models and data-driven decision-making.
Industry Insights
- Healthcare Is Experiencing Its GCC Moment: Financial services, manufacturing and retail drove earlier waves of GCC expansion. Healthcare is rapidly emerging as the next major frontier as providers seek to digitize operations and scale internationally.
- The Future of Healthcare Is Operationally Digital: Clinical excellence increasingly depends on analytics, interoperability, automation and data management capabilities operating behind the scenes of patient care delivery.
- Revenue Cycle Management Is Becoming Strategic: Medical billing, claims management and payer administration have evolved from support functions into critical levers of financial sustainability for healthcare providers globally.
- Healthcare Innovation Requires Real-World Clinical Ecosystems: Organizations that combine hospitals, diagnostics, digital platforms and innovation ecosystems gain a significant advantage in validating and scaling new healthcare technologies.
- India Offers a Unique Healthcare Capability Advantage: Few markets combine healthcare talent, digital engineering expertise, operational maturity and scale economics at the level India offers to global healthcare enterprises.
HEALTHCARE’S GCC MOMENT
Healthcare has traditionally been one of the last major industries to adopt global capability models because clinical delivery remains inherently local, highly regulated and deeply dependent on proximity to patients.
However, the rapid digitization of healthcare is fundamentally changing this equation. Healthcare data globally is projected to grow at an annual rate of approximately 36%, making it one of the fastest-growing categories of enterprise data. Simultaneously, providers face mounting pressures from aging populations, clinician shortages, rising treatment costs and increasing regulatory complexity.
As a result, healthcare organizations worldwide are increasingly centralizing non-clinical and technology-intensive functions into Global Business Services and capability centres capable of delivering scale, standardization and innovation across markets.
India’s healthcare capability ecosystem has expanded rapidly over the last decade, with healthcare providers, life sciences companies, payers and med-tech organizations establishing operations across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune and NCR. Capabilities spanning healthcare analytics, revenue cycle management, healthcare IT, patient engagement technologies, pharmacovigilance and digital health platforms are increasingly being managed from India-based centres supporting global operations.
IN SUMMARY
IHH Healthcare’s decision to position India as a strategic hub for shared services, enterprise operations and healthcare technology capabilities reflects a larger transformation underway across the global healthcare industry.
As healthcare delivery becomes increasingly digital, data-intensive and interconnected, Global Business Services and capability centres are evolving from support functions into strategic enablers of patient care, operational excellence and innovation. This represents another important milestone in its evolution from supporting global enterprises to helping design and operate the future of healthcare itself.
