India Pushes for Homegrown Tech Solutions

India is focusing on developing its own technology solutions rather than relying on foreign tech.

Ramgopal Rao, a well-known academician, says Indian universities should build a complete pipeline from research to real-world impact.

This means choosing important problems, funding early research, protecting ideas, building prototypes, and connecting researchers with industry.

BITS-Pilani, where Rao is the Vice-Chancellor, has a strong culture of entrepreneurship that encourages students to explore ideas outside the classroom.

The university offers a course called New Venture Creation to help students turn their ideas into reality.

Rao believes that combining different fields like biology, chemistry, computing, engineering, economics, and public policy can lead to innovative solutions.

India needs homegrown solutions in areas like semiconductors, healthcare, agriculture, space, energy, water, advanced materials, artificial intelligence, defence, and manufacturing.

The country is shifting from being a tech consumer to a product nation, with over 3,600 deep tech startups focusing on AI, space tech, semiconductors, and biotech.

The government is supporting this shift with a ₹10,000 crore Deep Tech Startup Fund and active investor consortia.

However, India still lags behind the US and China in R&D spending, patent generation, and government-to-startup procurement.

Deep tech startups in India face challenges in securing growth-stage capital and convincing the government to act as the primary customer.