For the past few years, India has seen a wave of startups from fintech, e-commerce, ed-tech, and many others. But, in recent times, the trend is shifting towards deep-tech startups.
India is finally becoming a deep-tech nation. We are seeing headlines about AI, private rockets, quantum labs, semiconductor initiatives, and tech innovations. Now, this all seems like something big happening, but the truth is different.
The wave of deep tech is real, but to support the wave, the system is not fully ready to carry its weight. India has the talent. Vision, money, but somehow it lacks something important.
In this article let’s do a deep dive and understand what more India needs to showcase its talent and potential in full scale.
A recent study by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) and industry partners exposes this gap with uncomfortable clarity. The study reveals structural weaknesses that could impact India’s deep-tech revolution.
Now before we talk about this, let’s understand what is happening in India currently.
According to the IBEF, India is home to over 3600 startups in the deep tech space. India is the sixth-largest deep-tech ecosystem in the world, according to a recent Nasscom-Zinnov analysis.
But you know what’s even more interesting? More than 480 deep-tech startups were founded in CY2023 alone.
The quality of innovation is evolving too. More than 100 startups built new IP, patents, or breakthrough solutions in areas like AI infrastructure, quantum technologies, materials science, robotics, and advanced engineering. A massive 74% of new deep-tech startups in 2023 focused on AI, compared to 62% in the entire decade between 2014 and 2022.
Now just think, when more startups are being born, more IP is being created, and funds are entering the sector. But there is a dependency on labs, research and infrastructure, networks, and testing facilities.
But these important facilities are not growing at a scale that can match this. This is where the recent study by the office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) becomes important.
There are some crucial findings from the study. First is that India’s research infrastructure is not ready for deep-tech startups.
Usually, we need high-end labs, fabrication and testing facilities, defense testbeds, and advanced materials labs. But the study shows that most publicly funded R&D labs are not accessible to startups, even though these labs hold exactly the infrastructure deep-tech founders need.
Only about 25% of public research institutions offer incubation or startup support, and just 16% have any structured support for deep-tech companies. While one in four labs helps startups in general, the number drops sharply for deep tech. Only one in six publicly funded R&D organizations support deep-tech-focused startups.
Now this is a major gap. Then it shows that there is limited collaboration. According to the PSA study, only around 15% of public R&D bodies collaborate with international industry partners, and domestic collaboration across labs is also limited.
Not just that, amongst India’s existing unicorns, only 4 can be considered as deep-tech startups.
This all starts with our R&D expenditure. In 2020–21, the Central government spent approximately ₹55,685 crore on R&D. Out of this, only ₹24,587 crore went to major scientific agencies, the institutions responsible for India’s core research capabilities. The study further reveals that only about 25% of participating institutions spend 75%–100% of their budgets on R&D, which is the level expected from true research-intensive organizations.
Now that’s a systemic weakness that is not in a position to support this growth. While the study shows and highlights structural weakness, it’s also important for us to understand what India is doing as corrective steps.
One of the most significant among them is the proposed National Deep Tech Startup Policy (NDTSP). The policy acknowledges exactly the issues we’ve discussed: limited lab access, poor tech transfer, lack of patient capital, minimal collaboration, and uneven R&D capability.
Now, we need to wait and watch how this turns out. What we need now is stronger infrastructure, better lab access, more research investment, open collaboration, and patient capital that matches the long timelines of deep tech.
Policies like the National Deep Tech Startup Policy (NDTSP) show that the country is moving in the right direction. But real change will depend on how well we execute these ideas on the ground.
Now, the next chapter depends on how we build from here.
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