Commencing conversations on day two of The Hindu Deep Tech Summit 2026 on Tuesday (April 7, 2026), a familiar question took on new urgency: who carries the risk of innovation in India, and who should? At the panel, “The State as a De-risker: Aligning Academic Excellence with National Strategic Mission,” voices from government, academia and venture capital converged to confront diverging issues. Moderated by N. Nagaraj, Vice-President of Digital Media at The Hindu, the discussion brought together Vibha Malhotra Sawhney, Sridhar Bharathwaj, Ramanan Ramanathan, Rishi Dewan and Ashwin Mahalingam.
At the heart of the conversation was a striking imbalance. “More than 70% of R&D funding comes from the government,” noted Dr. Ramanathan, Chairperson of the National Expert Advisory Council on Technology, Innovation and Incubation, Department of Science and Technology, calling it a “sad fact.” For a country aspiring to lead in deep tech, the private sector’s limited stake reveals both caution and a systemic gap.
Yet, the state is stepping in decisively. Sridhar Bharathwaj, founder, Exponential Integration VC Pvt. Ltd, pointed out that the government is now absorbing early-stage technological risk — Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 1 to 3 — validating ideas before they reach the market. But the real gap, he argued, lies beyond validation, where founders must translate research into business. Innovation alone is not enough; founders must think in terms of value, returns and scale.
For early-stage startups, the pathway is clearer than before, but not necessarily easier. Rishi Dewan, Associate at Startup India, emphasised that the first step is often recognition — formal acknowledgement that unlocks funding, mentorship and infrastructure. Still, access remains layered, requiring founders to navigate an evolving policy ecosystem.
The bigger risk
Dr. Vibha Sawhney, Head, Technology Management Directorate (TMD) and Innovation Protection Unit (PU), CSIR, offered a long term view. India’s risk appetite, she said, had grown significantly over the past decade, particularly among young entrepreneurs. But capital is only one part of the equation. The bigger risk, she cautioned, is losing originality in the race to follow trends.
Dr. Mahalingam, professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and co-founder of Okapi Research and Advisory Pvt Ltd., introduced a necessary provocation. Universities, he argued, must remain spaces for “unabashedly theoretical” inquiry, because fundamental science underpins every major technological leap — from semiconductors to artificial intelligence. The danger lies in chasing incremental, “substitute innovations” instead of pursuing breakthroughs. He also reframed capital itself: investing is not merely transactional, but an alignment of vision — something many young founders are still learning to navigate.
That tension — between ambition and authenticity — surfaced repeatedly. Dr. Ramanathan called for a cultural shift within universities, urging institutions to move beyond publications and placements toward problem-solving ecosystems embedded across districts and States.
Underlying it all was a more human question: what holds innovators back?
“The greatest risk today is not taking risks,” Dr. Ramanathan said. Dr. Mahalingam echoed it more simply: for students, there is virtually no downside. If not now, when?
With over 2,00,000 startups and a growing policy backbone, India stands at an inflection point. The tools exist; the capital, slowly, is following. What remains uncertain is whether its people are willing to take the leap.
Published – April 07, 2026 09:36 pm IST
