What is Ankastra? Ajinkya Technologies\u2019 Workforce Management Platform Explained
Ankastra is Ajinkya Technologies\u2019 AI-powered Workforce Management System built specifically for Indian enterprise manufacturing. It replaces paper registers, Excel sheets, and disconnected biometric devices with a single platform that handles attendance, payroll, contract labour, and statutory compliance \u2014 across multiple plants and contractor companies simultaneously.
The problem Ankastra solves
Most Indian manufacturers with 500+ workers manage attendance through a mix of ESSL or ZKTeco biometric devices, Excel exports, and manual payroll calculations. When a plant has 12 contractor companies supplying 800 workers alongside 400 permanent staff, the monthly payroll cycle becomes a 3\u20134 day manual exercise prone to errors, ghost employees, and compliance gaps.
Ankastra eliminates this by connecting directly to the biometric hardware and automating everything downstream.
Core capabilities
Face recognition attendance. Ankastra integrates with ESSL, Matrix COSEC, ZKTeco, and Honeywell biometric devices. For plants without existing hardware, a Flutter-based face recognition kiosk runs on a Samsung Galaxy Tab and uses ArcFace embeddings for identification \u2014 with a server-side matching pipeline that caps CPU usage so it does not impact other applications on the same server.
Contract labour management. Each contractor company gets a portal to submit worker data, attendance records, and invoices. Ankastra cross-checks contractor-submitted attendance against biometric data automatically and flags discrepancies before the billing cycle closes. This alone typically recovers 3\u20135% of contract labour payroll leakage.
Multi-state payroll automation. The payroll engine handles PF, ESI, PT (across Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Gujarat, and other states), TDS, Gratuity, Bonus, and LWF \u2014 with monthly challans auto-generated in the format required by each statutory authority.
Factories Act compliance registers. Form 12, Form 15, and Form 25 registers are auto-populated from attendance data. For plants that receive labour inspector visits, these registers are available on demand without any manual preparation.
TV Dashboard and shift boards. Large-format TV dashboards show real-time department attendance, shift fill rates, and absent worker counts. Plant heads and HR managers see the floor status without calling anyone.
Scale
Ankastra currently manages 71,000+ employees across 14 contractor companies at multiple enterprise manufacturing sites. Hardware integrations run across ESSL, Matrix COSEC, ZKTeco, and Honeywell devices. The platform is multi-tenant \u2014 each client\u2019s data is stored in isolated databases.
Who uses Ankastra
Ankastra is built for Indian discrete and process manufacturers with 200+ workers, multiple shifts, and contractor labour. It is particularly relevant for steel, aluminium, packaging, pharmaceutical, and auto-component plants where contractor headcount equals or exceeds permanent staff.
How to get started
A deployment assessment takes 2 working days. Contact Ajinkya Technologies at hello@ajinkyatechnologies.in or visit ajinkyatechnologies.com/products/ankastra.
Amey Kadle
Founder & CEO, Kadle Global Pvt Ltd. Featured in Forbes India April 2026 as one of India’s top innovation entrepreneurs. Managing Rs 12,000 crore+ in enterprise inventory across 360+ clients.