Panelists at the Hopkins India Conference emphasized that while India has a talent advantage in deep tech, significant gaps in capital, research, and commercialization must be addressed for success.
As global competition in artificial intelligence, defense technologies, and advanced manufacturing intensifies, India’s ambitions in deep tech are becoming increasingly tangible. However, unlocking this potential will necessitate structural shifts in capital, culture, and commercialization, according to a panel of industry leaders and investors at the second annual Hopkins India Conference, held on April 1, 2026.
The panel, titled “Building India’s DeepTech Engine: Startups, Venture Capital, and Innovation Pathways,” featured prominent figures including Vivek Lall, CEO of General Dynamics; Seema Chaturvedi, Founder and Managing Partner of Achieving Women Equity Fund and The Accelerator Group; Raj Iyer, President of Global Public Sector Markets at T-Second and CEO of Digital Excellence; and Girish Rishi, CEO and Chairman of Cognite. The discussion was moderated by Alex Triantis, Dean of the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University.
Held at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, DC, the session was part of the broader conference hosted by the Gupta-Klinsky Center, which attracted policymakers, academics, and business leaders to discuss India’s evolving role in global innovation.
Vivek Lall noted that the rise of deep tech startups in India signifies a structural shift in how large global companies approach innovation. Drawing from his extensive experience in aerospace and defense, Lall emphasized that startups are no longer peripheral players but are now central to innovation ecosystems. “We really see that as the engine of growth for large companies,” he remarked, highlighting partnerships with Indian startups in areas such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors.
A key difference from a decade ago, Lall argued, is the access to global talent. Today’s startups are not limited by geography; they are leveraging a distributed, highly skilled workforce and aligning with cutting-edge research and applications. This shift is particularly critical in defense and strategic technologies, where recent geopolitical conflicts have prompted governments and corporations to rethink traditional approaches. Lall stated, “Conflicts and the lessons that are being learned relative to defense are going to fundamentally reshape how various countries look at defense overall,” adding that startups will play an increasingly integral role in incubating new ideas within larger enterprises.
At the core of this transformation lies talent, and India possesses a significant advantage in this area. “The demographic there, the eagerness to learn, the talent pool—that is a strategic advantage,” Lall said, suggesting that India’s human capital could underpin its leadership in deep tech across various sectors beyond information technology.
While talent is India’s strength, capital remains a constraint, particularly in deep tech, where long gestation periods clash with venture capital’s traditional expectations for quick returns. Seema Chaturvedi framed this tension, arguing that deep tech requires a fundamentally different investment mindset. “This space does not need venture velocity — it needs infrastructure patience,” she asserted.
Unlike software startups, which can scale rapidly with relatively low capital, deep tech ventures—especially in hardware, climate tech, and industrial innovation—require significant upfront investment, longer timelines, and a higher risk tolerance. To bridge this gap, Chaturvedi called for a more layered capital stack. She argued that venture capital alone cannot support the full lifecycle of deep tech innovation; it must be complemented by development finance institutions, government funding, and even philanthropic capital to create a foundation of “patient capital.”
Chaturvedi pointed to recent initiatives by the Indian government, including a roughly $1.2 billion fund of funds and the Research Development Innovation (RDI) Fund, which enables domestic companies to acquire and internalize foreign technologies. However, she emphasized that capital is only one piece of the puzzle. Stronger commercialization pathways are also essential, as innovation in India—ranging from grassroots “jugaad” solutions to advanced scientific research—often struggles to reach scale.
“What it needs is a more formalized channel of commercialization,” she said, underscoring the importance of partnerships between startups, corporates, and government entities. She also highlighted a critical blind spot in venture investing: the mispricing of execution risk. “In deep tech, it’s not just the risk of technology… there’s actually an equal and more… risk of execution and scale,” she noted, adding that her firm is actively working to bridge these gaps through initiatives that connect startups with potential corporate partners and buyers.
Raj Iyer extended the discussion by focusing on structural gaps in India’s innovation ecosystem, particularly in research and infrastructure. He argued that deep tech is fundamentally different from incremental innovation, requiring breakthroughs in foundational science rather than merely applications layered on existing technologies. “It’s how do you come up with the next new foundational models,” he said, contrasting deep tech with more incremental, AI-driven software innovation.
India faces a significant challenge in this regard, as the pipeline from academic research to commercial application remains underdeveloped. Iyer noted that India spends roughly 0.5% of its GDP on research and development, a fraction of what countries like the United States (3-3.5%), China (around 2.5%), and Israel (up to 7%) invest. “This is a culture thing that I think India needs to recognize and overcome,” he stated.
The implications of this investment gap are profound. Without sustained investment in research infrastructure—such as labs, equipment, and talent—deep tech innovation cannot scale. At the same time, venture capital expectations must evolve. Hardware and industrial innovation require longer time horizons and greater patience, which many investors accustomed to software returns may struggle to provide.
While talent and capital are foundational, Girish Rishi introduced a third dimension: global competitiveness. For Indian deep tech companies aiming to scale internationally, issues of data sovereignty, security, and trust are becoming increasingly critical. “Sovereignty is a big trend where countries want to have control of their data, control of their cloud, control of their manufacturing,” Rishi said, emphasizing the need for companies to adapt their products and business models to local regulatory environments.
He also pointed to a more immediate challenge: limited domestic adoption of advanced technologies. “The Indian market has been underwhelming in the adoption of technology,” he remarked, attributing this to a mindset among many businesses that view technology as a cost rather than a strategic investment. This reluctance creates a vicious cycle; without strong domestic customers, startups struggle to scale, and without scale, they find it difficult to compete globally.
Rishi contrasted this with ecosystems in China and the United States, where large domestic markets provide early validation and revenue for emerging companies. For India to replicate this model, he argued, major corporations—such as Reliance and Tata—must play a more active role in adopting and financially supporting new technologies. “Everything is about proof of concept… but I won’t pay for it,” he criticized, highlighting the need to break this mindset for India to “leapfrog” into global leadership in deep tech.
The panel’s insights collectively painted a picture of an ecosystem in transition. India possesses many of the necessary ingredients for deep tech success: a vast and skilled talent pool, growing government support, and a vibrant startup culture. However, systemic gaps in capital structures, research investment, commercialization pathways, and domestic demand continue to constrain its potential.
Ultimately, the discussion underscored that no single stakeholder can address these challenges alone. “It takes a village,” Chaturvedi concluded, a sentiment echoed throughout the session. For India to build a globally competitive deep tech engine, coordinated action across government, academia, industry, and investors will be essential. It will require patience as much as ambition, and collaboration as much as competition.
As global technological rivalries intensify, the stakes could not be higher. India’s ability to emerge as a deep tech powerhouse will not only shape its own future but also its role in an increasingly complex and competitive world, according to The American Bazaar.