From science to scale: Building India’s deep-tech backbone

India’s journey from scientific research to large-scale innovation is entering a decisive phase. According to Dr Jyoti Sharma, Head of the RDI Cell at the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, the national focus is now shifting from pure innovation to building a deep-tech backbone that can scale sustainably and support the vision of Viksit Bharat. Speaking on the evolving research and innovation landscape, Dr Sharma said many of the challenges facing India are not unique. “These are common challenges globally, including in developed economies such as Germany,” she noted, adding that India’s task is not to reinvent science, but to convert scientific capability into economic and societal outcomes.

A decade defined by innovation

Dr Sharma described the past decade as India’s “decade of innovation”, marked by close collaboration between government, industry and academia to build a supportive ecosystem for startups, entrepreneurs and emerging technologies. This effort has taken shape through a series of mission-mode programmes spanning high-performance computing, biotechnology, cyber-physical systems, semiconductors, deep-sea exploration, quantum technologies, green hydrogen and artificial intelligence.

“These missions show that the government is not merely signalling intent, but actively building capacity,” she said. She also emphasised that modern research is increasingly interdisciplinary, with scientific outcomes often drawing from multiple domains rather than isolated fields.

Strong indicators, limited commercial scale

India’s innovation metrics have strengthened significantly. The country has climbed from around 90th to 30th place in the Global Innovation Index, while patent filings have tripled over the past decade. India is now among the top three countries globally in terms of PhD output in science and engineering, and ranks third worldwide in the number of startups and unicorns. Startup funding has grown fifteenfold, the investor base has expanded ninefold, and the number of incubators has increased sevenfold.

Despite these gains, Dr Sharma acknowledged that India continues to lag behind developed economies in deep-tech commercialisation. She pointed to several structural constraints identified by DST. India invests only around 0.6–0.7 per cent of GDP in research and development, far below levels seen in the US, China, Japan and Germany. Private sector participation in R&D stands at just 36.4 per cent, and research output remains concentrated in a small number of institutions, leaving nearly 90 per cent of the country’s more than 5,000 institutions underutilised. Long gestation periods of 10–15 years, funding gaps, talent mismatches, limited access to advanced laboratories, regulatory friction and weak adoption pipelines further constrain scale-up. “These are precisely the barriers that prevent science from translating into industry-ready solutions,” she said.

To bridge these gaps, the government established the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) in 2024 through an Act of Parliament. ANRF is intended to serve as a central platform aligning research, development and innovation with industry requirements. Dr Sharma noted that a common misconception among industry leaders is that government funding is restricted to public institutions. “That is no longer true,” she said, adding that most new programmes are explicitly designed to encourage private and industry participation.

The Rs 1 lakh crore RDI Fund

A significant policy shift came with the launch of the Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund, a Rs 1 lakh crore initiative approved in July and formally launched by the Prime Minister in November. The fund is designed exclusively for industry, startups and private enterprises, offering unsecured financing at low interest rates with long tenures of 15 to 20 years. It can cover up to 50 per cent of project costs, with no prescribed minimum or maximum ticket size, and supports deep-tech projects from technology readiness level (TRL) 4 onwards, including technology acquisition.

The RDI Fund will be operated through ANRF and second-level fund managers such as alternative investment funds, development finance institutions and specialised research organisations. It targets sunrise sectors including energy transition and climate action, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, robotics, space technologies, biotechnology, medical devices, digital agriculture and the wider digital economy. Alongside this, DST is strengthening national infrastructure through quantum and cyber-physical system hubs, as well as AI initiatives such as Bhashini, which aims to develop indigenous AI models across 22 Indian languages.

From research to results

Dr Sharma’s message was unequivocal: India already has the science, talent and ambition required to lead in deep technology. What it now needs is scale, sustained private participation and closer, outcome-driven collaboration between researchers and industry. “Unless scientists and industry work together closely, it will be difficult to achieve the vision of 2047,” she said. The shift from science to scale, she concluded, is no longer optional but central to building India’s deep-tech future.

Written By- Preeti Anand