Start your GCC in Punjab.
We'll build the team.
The talent is here, the cost base is a fraction of a metro's, and the workforce can be trained to your stack before day one. AST helps global companies open and staff a capability centre in Punjab — from the first feasibility conversation to a running, certified team.
The next GCC wave is leaving the metros.
Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune are saturated — rents, salaries and attrition all say so. The companies opening centres now are looking at tier-2 cities with deep graduate pools and none of the churn. Punjab is one of the strongest of them, and almost nobody has built the talent infrastructure to prove it.
That is the part we do. We already train on campuses across the state, and we already know which graduates can be made job-ready in weeks, not years.
Tier-2 cost base
Salaries, real estate and overheads well below the metros — without a drop in graduate quality.
Deep graduate pool
Engineering and business graduates from LPU, GNA, NITs and dozens of colleges, most of whom currently leave the state to find this work.
Low attrition
People stay where they're from. A centre in Punjab keeps its institutional knowledge in a way a metro centre never does.
Connected
Chandigarh airport, the Mohali IT corridor and expressway links to Delhi. Jalandhar and Ludhiana are both within reach.
Not a back office. A second headquarters.
A capability centre used to mean cost arbitrage. The ones being built today own product, data and AI work outright, and run shared services the parent company relies on. Punjab can staff all of it.
Engineering & product
Software teams that own features and services end to end, not just tickets.
Data & AI
Analytics, machine learning and applied AI teams — the fastest-growing function in every new GCC.
Shared services
Finance, HR, procurement and operations run centrally for the whole group.
Customer operations
Support, success and onboarding teams in English, Hindi and Punjabi.
From feasibility to a running team
Five stages. You can stop at any of them and take over — or keep us on for the upskilling.
Assess
Which functions to move, which city fits (Mohali, Jalandhar or Ludhiana), what the role mix looks like and what it costs against your current centre. You get a written feasibility note.
Design
The operating model, the hiring plan, the timeline and the training curriculum mapped to your actual stack and processes. Entity, real estate and compliance are scoped with our specialist partners.
Build the team
We recruit from our partner campuses, run a pre-hire bootcamp on your tools, assess on real work and certify. You interview a shortlist that has already been trained for the role.
Launch & run
Space set up, team onboarded, and our people alongside yours on site through the first ninety days. Managers from your side are supported until the centre runs itself.
Transfer & grow
Full handover to your leadership. Optionally keep us on for continuous upskilling, the next hiring wave and new functions as the centre expands.
Three ways to start a centre
Build–Operate–Transfer
We set the centre up, staff it and run it for an agreed period, then hand the whole thing over to you — team, processes, leadership.
- Fastest route to a working centre
- Your brand, your systems from day one
- Clear handover date agreed up front
Hire–Train–Deploy
You already have the entity and the office. We build the pipeline: source, train on your stack, certify and hand over hires ready to start.
- Batches sized to your hiring plan
- Role-specific bootcamps, assessed on real work
- Ongoing upskilling as your stack changes
Pilot pod
A small dedicated team on one function for one or two quarters — to prove the quality and the economics before you commit to a full centre.
- Low commitment, measurable outcomes
- Runs on our platform and premises
- Converts into either model above
The talent layer, already built
Most GCC advisors start by looking for people. We start with people we already teach.
- Live training relationships with campuses across Punjab and beyond — Atria, LPU, GNA, NIT Patna, NIFT
- Curriculum and trainers in AI, blockchain, data and software — retargeted to your stack in weeks
- Pre-hire bootcamps assessed on real work, so a shortlist arrives already trained
- Instruction and onboarding in English, Hindi and Punjabi
- On-the-ground presence in Jalandhar and relationships across the state's institutions
A typical first engagement
What companies ask first
Do we need an Indian entity to start?
Not for a pilot pod — that runs under AST. For a full centre, yes, and our partners handle incorporation, registrations and compliance as part of the design stage. Several structures are possible; we lay out the trade-offs in the feasibility note.
Which city should we pick?
Mohali if you want an established IT corridor and airport access. Jalandhar or Ludhiana if you want the deepest graduate pool, the lowest cost base and to be the anchor employer rather than one of many. We recommend based on the functions you're moving.
How good are the graduates really?
Raw ability is comparable to anywhere in India — the gap has always been exposure and training, not talent. That gap is exactly what our bootcamps close. You interview a shortlist that has already worked on your kind of problems for several weeks.
What about senior people and managers?
A centre needs a small core of experienced leads. We source those from the Punjab diaspora in the metros — many are looking for a reason to come home — and from our own network of trainers and industry contacts.
How is this different from outsourcing?
The team is yours. Your brand, your systems, your culture, your IP — in a Build–Operate–Transfer model we hand every bit of it over on an agreed date. Outsourcing rents you capacity; a GCC builds you an asset.
Start with a feasibility conversation
Tell us what you'd move and roughly how many people. We'll come back with a written note on location, role mix, timeline and cost against your current centre — no commitment.