Chandigarh, Apr 14: ACC, the cement and building materials company of the diversified Adani Portfolio, along with the Adani Foundation, through its Adani Skill Development Centre (ASDC) at ACC Gagal, is creating first-generation professionals from rural Mandi by equipping young people from simple backgrounds with the skills, confidence, and placement support to build careers in India’s booming retail sector.
What does it take to go from a village in Mandi to the floor of a Reliance Trends store in Mohali? As it turns out, not much more than the right training and someone willing to believe you can do it. For Pallavi Sharma from Baroti and Maheshwar Singh from Sihal, that someone was Adani Foundation’s ASDC at ACC Gagal — and what it gave them was not just a skill set but an entirely new sense of what was possible. Neither of them had retail experience. Neither of them had connections. What they had was the willingness to show up, work hard, and trust a process that had been designed specifically for people like them.
Pallavi had grown up in a household where making ends meet took precedence over making plans. She had always sensed that her life could look different, she just had no clear path to make it so. Maheshwar had spent his childhood watching his father farm the land in Sihal, absorbing both the dignity of that work and the quiet anxiety that came with it. For both of them, the decision to enrol in the Retail Sales Associate course at ASDC Gagal was less a leap of faith and more a calculated bet on themselves, one that the centre was built to help them win.
The training was not easy. Stepping into a structured professional environment for the first time, learning to communicate with strangers, building the kind of confident demeanour that retail demands; none of it came naturally at first. Pallavi pushed through moments of doubt that would have stopped others. Maheshwar stayed focused when the gap between where he was and where he wanted to be felt widest. Slowly, steadily, both of them got there.
Today, Pallavi earns Rs. 13,520 per month at Reliance Trends, Mohali — her first real salary, her first step toward independence, and for her family, the first sign that the future might look a little different from the past. Maheshwar stands on the same floor, earning the same salary, carrying with him the quiet promise he had made to himself to make his father’s early mornings count for something.
Two people from a district in Himachal Pradesh that people have rarely heard of, now building careers in one of the country’s most recognised retail chains. That is what Adani Foundation’s ASDC at ACC Gagal is making possible in Mandi — and this is only the beginning.
