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India’s DeepTech Moment: Why Our Startups Must Go Beyond Apps and Aggregators

                              

By Anand Gupta | July 2025

India’s startup story is nothing short of remarkable. From food delivery platforms and ride-hailing apps to fintech and gig economy solutions, innovation has exploded in every direction. But as the Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal rightly pointed out recently, India’s startup ecosystem has mostly thrived on business model innovation — not DeepTech.

As the world enters a new phase of technological supremacy rooted in core scientific research, India must now embrace a bold ambition: to become a DeepTech powerhouse.

What Is DeepTech, Really?

“DeepTech” isn’t just another buzzword. It stands for startups that are built on scientific breakthroughs, engineering excellence, and original IP. Think:

The distinction? DeepTech is hard. It’s expensive, slow to mature, and often uncertain — but it's what drives real technological leadership.

Why India Needs DeepTech Now

India ranks as the 3rd largest startup ecosystem in the world, but lacks globally recognised DeepTech products. No Indian version of TensorFlow, QNX, Android, or even a breakthrough biotech platform exists. Our engineers power the world’s biggest tech companies — Google, Microsoft, Tesla — but what about building at home?

China’s DeepTech rise is instructive. It started by reverse-engineering Western tech but invested in core chemistry, physics, and manufacturing early on. That’s why it now leads in batteries, semiconductors, and solar tech. India can’t afford to miss this bus.

The 5 Pillars India Must Build

Here’s what India needs for a thriving DeepTech ecosystem:

1. Product Mindset

  • We need founders who build, not just manage.

  • India rarely develops its own globally competitive tech products.

2. Strong R&D Culture

  • Most Indian startups don’t invest in fundamental research.

  • Great DeepTech startups—like NVIDIA or Google—were built by tech-first founders who got their hands dirty.

3. Technical Depth

4. Academic-Industry Collaboration

5. Smarter Government Policies

What’s the Government Doing?

Some good news:

  • ANRF (Anusandhan National Research Foundation): ₹6,000 crore corpus to foster R&D across science disciplines.

  • PLI Schemes: Encouraging semiconductor and electronics manufacturing.

  • India Semiconductor Mission: DeepTech at the chip level.

But the challenge remains: policy must meet practice. We must fund projects not just based on location (incubators) but on merit — the depth of the tech and the talent building it.

From Classroom to Lab: Reform Education First

Our engineering education still focuses on coding syntax, not scientific reasoning.
We need Indian versions of MIT’s culture of foundational training and Stanford’s cross-domain projects.

Imagine college students working on nanotech, AI hardware, medical robotics — not just mobile apps and websites.

Build in India. For the World.

India’s future won’t be built on aggregators and delivery apps. It will be built in labs, workshops, cleanrooms, and classrooms. The world needs scalable, sustainable solutions in health, climate, mobility, energy — and DeepTech is the bridge.

We already have the talent. We need to channel it towards real invention, bold experimentation, and the courage to fail until we succeed.

Final Thoughts

If we want the next OpenAI, BYD, or CRISPR breakthrough to be born in India, we must:

  • Prioritise original research,

  • Build world-class product labs,

  • Reform engineering education, and

  • Fund visionary founders.

India’s DeepTech decade must start now. Not just to compete — but to lead.

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