Deep tech innovation: India’s next frontier
Deep tech is crucial for India’s global standing, shifting the nation’s focus from consumer apps to advanced innovation in fields like AI, space, and biotech. Despite challenges in R&D investment and early-stage funding, new government initiatives and growing investor interest are paving the way for India’s technological future and leadership.
In a recent Mann ki Baat broadcast, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pulled off a linguistic feat that even P.V. Narasimha Rao, his predecessor who was fluent in 17 languages, could not achieve. Modi addressed his diverse audience in their native tongues—from chaste Telugu and Bengali to Odia and Punjabi.
This generative AI ‘trick’, however, is just a starting block when it comes to India’s deep tech ambitions. Deep tech refers to innovations from startups and companies driven by advanced science and engineering in fields like robotics, space, defence, clean energy, biotechnology and quantum computing. With India’s technology startup boom now largely driven by consumer app-driven ‘shallow tech’, uncomfortable questions are being raised about how future-ready the country is in the deep tech space.
Union Minister Piyush Goyal recently sparked debate by calling out India’s startup ecosystem. “We are focused on food delivery apps,” he said, “turning unemployed youth into cheap labour so that the rich can get their meals without moving out of their house!”
Goyal raised two valid points. One, Indian entrepreneurs are not focusing enough on deep tech and advanced foundational science solutions. Two, it is not just a matter of GDP growth or better lives. Today, in a world increasingly shaped by geo-strategy, a nation’s technological edge directly influences its global standing.
“We want to be the third largest economy,” said entrepreneur Saurabh Srivastava, a recipient of the Padma Shri award. “We want to be among the three major powers. But how do you have a say in what goes on in the world? You have to have something that people want. We don’t have a choice. The government recognises it.”