Idle small-city office floors fitted as pack-away computer exam halls
TL;DR Pencildown turns empty office floors in smaller cities into computer-based test halls that meet board security norms, then packs the hall down between exam windows. Exam service providers hire the seats by the session, and the landlord takes a share of each booking. The bet is that compliant seats, not software, are what recruitment exams run short of.
India's recruitment and entrance exams have outgrown the halls they run in. The national testing agency can seat about 1.5 lakh candidates per shift on computers, while the cancelled NEET-UG paper of May 2026 involved more than 22 lakh[1]. Do the maths and it's not even close.
Most government bodies own no test halls of their own. A 2023 central order says venues are usually rented by vendors from third parties, are not standard exam centres, and lean on outsourced invigilators and server staff[2].
So candidates travel to distant cities, and agencies book whatever college lab happens to be free. In a weak venue, one compromised server room can sink a whole paper.
What it does, in regulatory terms: it supplies exam venues and hardware to exam service providers, which makes it a "service provider" under the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act 2024. Directors face personal criminal liability if the firm connives in malpractice[3]. Take legal advice before signing the first contract.
Pencildown signs revenue-share deals with owners of idle floors in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, about 100–250 seats per site. It installs what tenders ask for - one face-on camera for every ten to thirty candidates plus corridor cameras, a spare-seat buffer, power backup and frisking points[4]. Desks fold, screens and machines lock into wheeled cabinets, and the floor can be let for training or events between exam windows. Pencildown runs the venue staff and hands footage and logs to the client after each session.
The seed promised AI-led modular repurposing. I reframed it, because in this use the real limit is audited compliance, not smart layouts. The software here is a booking and compliance log, nothing more.
The candidate pays the exam fee, but the buyer is the CBT service provider that wins a board, university or bank tender and has to find seats in every listed city[5]. Providers bid a per-candidate rate, and no public per-seat venue rent was found. My assumption is a per-seat-per-session fee, with the landlord taking a fixed share in place of rent. Universities and professional institutes that run their own tests are a second buyer.
The 2024 law made venue failures a criminal matter for providers[3]. In December 2024 the Radhakrishnan committee proposed 400–500 school and college centres giving 2–2.5 lakh seats a session[6], and its later summary called for at least 1,000 secure centres in government institutions[7]. After the May 2026 NEET cancellation, pressure to move exams onto computers rose again[1].
There is no public count of private CBT venues or published per-seat rents. The narrowest firm figure is the gap - about 1.5 lakh computer seats per shift for the national agency against a single exam of 22 lakh candidates[1].
Adjacent, the government's own plan targets up to 1,000 secure centres[7]. That shows demand, but it may also crowd out private venues.
Large CBT providers bid with their own owned nodes, and one tender gave extra marks for centres of at least 250 nodes available all year[4]. Engineering colleges and private computer institutes rent labs on exam days. The government's plan uses schools and colleges[6]. The gap is a standard, audit-ready venue in a district town that a provider can book with the checklist already filled in, without owning the building.
| Difficulty | Hard (52/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹1.4–2.6 Cr |
| Time to launch | 6–9 months |
Fitting out a hall is the easy part. Getting on a large provider's venue list takes security audits and a clean record, and one leak at your site can end the business. Exam calendars are lumpy too, so seats sit idle for weeks, and the pack-away design exists to earn something in those gaps.
Yes, this is regulated work. Venue suppliers count as service providers under exam law, with real criminal exposure.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Never let AI decide that a candidate cheated. Under the 2024 Act that call carries legal weight, so it stays with trained invigilators and the exam body.
Want to work out the AI layer for Pencildown? Talk to Yash →
I think this is worth a look for an operator who has run exam logistics or IT for a CBT vendor and knows its venue checklist by heart. If you're a real-estate founder without that background then don't try it. Before fitting out a single floor, get a signed letter from one CBT provider promising sessions at a named district site.
Plan for roughly ₹1.4–2.6 Cr, mostly for computers, cameras, power backup and fit-out across the first sites.
There is no single licence, but you fall under the Public Examinations Act 2024, DoPT CBT standards and each tender's venue norms. Take legal advice first.
Yes, but exam security rules are local and strict. Check what each exam body requires before you fit out a hall.
The free Pencildown validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the exam-law and venue-norm checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for exam providers and landlords, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Pencildown or something close to it? The make-or-break work is getting one exam provider to list your first site and pass its audit, and I'd be glad to help you plan that. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.