India has a strong potential to become the world’s largest supply base for AI talent, said Nirav Patel, President and CEO of Mastech Digital. He added that GCCs are a major growth driver for the country, as large enterprises are now bringing their core operations rather than just leveraging India for cost advantages.
“We feel positive about what is happening in India and what that can do for the AI world. India is uniquely positioned to capitalise on this opportunity because we have more stability in the Central government and stable leadership in the nation, which is always good. It gives a clearer point of view on policy orchestration because a changing leadership means we are unclear about our future. This advantage needs to be converted into meaningful investments,” he noted.
Start-up ecosystem
Unlike historically, when the nation’s budget was more focused on railways and building infrastructure, Patel observed there is now some commitment to building the start-up ecosystem and funds, both of which are investment vehicles for growing the economy of a new age, the AI world.
“The government has to continue pushing aggressively. A public-private ecosystem is building up, with governments continuing to be more supportive and private investments continuing to flow, whether it is through foreign direct investments or otherwise. The technology world now has a huge advantage because there is a bit of a China plus one diversion. The money that used to be ‘Shanghai’s captive money’ coming from North America, is now substantially going into the India market.”
The CEO of the US-listed company also shared that captive centres of large US enterprises, which would come to India for cost advantage, are now trying to build an intellectual advantage, wanting to hire AI talent and shifting core work to the country.
Patel said Mastech will also continue investing in India for further growth and expansion not just in existing centers, but by expanding new centers.
The Pittsburgh-headquarted company, whose employee count is around 1,700 people worldwide, has offices in cities including Bengaluru, Chennai, and Bengaluru.
Speaking about future plans, Patel said, “We will double down our efforts in India to further expand our thinking. Today, we are North America-focused from a customer standpoint. From a talent supply, we will look at more expansion opportunities, both near shore, and closer to the US market, because we have a new administration stopping more jobs from being brought back into the States. We want to play that advantage because we are a US-listed company and one of our largest talent is based here. We think we have a good base in both places and can expand further, but I feel positive about India and what it can do for the AI world.”
The CEO added that with Trump pushing corporations to bring more jobs into the country, Mastech is at an advantage because it is in the US market and has a huge ecosystem to hire from. With enterprises standing up to the mandate of the new administration and starting to bring people in, the first thing they look at is partners like the company for hiring. Mastech’s talent business will be a bit of a tailwind with large enterprises and Fortune 500s relying on these partners, he said.
“It’s a win-win for the industry and the US excitement is high from an economic activity viewpoint. As long as there are enough dollars in the hands of Fortune 500 companies, we will be there to capture that investment.”
In its fourth quarter ended December 2024, Mastech’s IT staffing services segment recorded revenues of $40.5 million, a 6.8 per cent increase from the $37.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2023.