Deep-tech focus critical for India to lead global digital innovation

From artificial intelligence to direct-to-mobile broadcasting, India faces a technology strategy dilemma on whether to develop indigenous deep-tech ecosystems or to follow the lead on technologies developed outside India. From chips to platforms, India’s dependence on foreign deep-tech ecosystems points to a long-term strategic vulnerability. An emphasis on services over core technology, applications over platforms and use cases over foundational capabilities has marked India’s technology evolution since the 1990s. 

The development of the IT services opportunity saw India emerge as the manpower capital of the world to service the Y2K problem at the dawn of the new century. Subsequent phases of technology development saw India emerge first as the software services capital to go on to become the back-office capital to global firms. This global trend of outsourcing has since evolved into Global Capability Centers being located in India, sucking away the remaining Indian talent that hadn’t already migrated to the more developed economies. Between migrant Indian talent servicing the hi-tech sector in global hotspots such as Silicon Valley in California and the native Indian talent under the employment of GCCs, the much-acclaimed Indian talent prowess in emerging technologies is largely deployed towards strengthening and enhancing foreign technology systems and platforms. 

Since 2014, a key course correction has occurred with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government prioritising Digital Public Goods. Starting with taking Aadhaar universal to opening up banking through mobile phones, the DPG wave prioritised technology-led socio-economic development. 

This DPG wave received its greatest boost in the aftermath of demonetisation with UPI for digital payments radically transforming commerce. With even the smallest of street vendors being able to participate in the digital economy, the DPG wave saw the widening of the digital base in India with almost every stratum of society participating in the emerging digital economy. 

The DPG wave played a pivotal role during the Covid-19 pandemic from digital delivery of vaccine certificates to paving the way for a new wave of digital quick commerce. From ONDC to Sahmati the next set of DPGs have widened the scope of potential applications while India under PM Modi made a bold pitch to the world on adopting its DPG-led developmental model.  During the 2024 general elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again demonstrated that he is a leader who is not shy of experimenting with new technologies with his adoption of artificial intelligence for delivering his speeches in multiple languages. 

With Bhashini and Anuvadini, India is witnessing the first set of AI DPGs making their mark to transcend the language diversity and deepen the impact of the digital-led development model of PM Modi. The rollout of 5G across India has accelerated digital growth while the market for smartphones continues to rise in India. It is to PM Modi’s credit that concerted efforts to bring hi-tech manufacturing to India are bearing fruit starting with smartphones and related electronics while the first set of semiconductor projects have broken ground. This is an inflexion point in the evolution of the Indian economy with a convergence between domestic demand, native talent pool and indigenous technology. 

It would be extremely shortsighted to let this moment fritter away by giving in to arguments that India must not invest in development of foundational technologies and instead prioritise building use cases, applications and related services. From AI to D2M, India has both the opportunity and the intellectual property base to develop indigenous foundational technologies that can not only drive the next wave of DPGs but also create a virtuous cycle of demand for the nascent semiconductor ecosystem in India. To let this moment slip away would be to further increase dependence on foreign platforms and to lose out to China which dominates the technology standards landscape such as the 5G/6G standards at 3GPP and is accelerating native development of AI chips and platforms.  

India imports nearly $40 billion worth of semiconductors annually, heavily relying on China for low-cost chips that power everything from feature phones to IoT devices. Through state-supported entities, China gained a significant foothold in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), ensuring its technologies became globally adopted. This early dominance allowed Chinese companies to corner the market in 5G-enabled devices and related chipsets. For example, of the approximately 800 documents submitted by 3GPP members (companies, educational and research institutions) to the 3GPP Radio Access Network (RAN) working group, Chinese entities have solo or multi-authored 240 contributions dealing with technology advances that will create new standards in 5G and 6G over the next five to 10 years. This represents about 25 per cent of the contributions. Huawei alone is named in 90, and ZTE in 65. 

India’s experience with D2M is eerily similar. While the country has pioneered trials and use cases for D2M through Prasar Bharati and IIT Kanpur, it risks losing the advantage if it fails to define and own global standards for D2M technology. Without leadership in standards, India could once again find itself importing Chinese D2M chipsets, losing billions in potential downstream manufacturing and eroding its self-reliance goal. India’s DPG strategy, celebrated for platforms like Aadhaar and UPI, now requires a deeper pivot toward deep-tech and hardware ecosystems where platforms drive demand for chips, and chips, in turn, fuel innovation. The path forward requires bold policy, coordinated execution, and an unwavering focus on deep-tech. From AI to D2M, India has the talent, vision, and ambition for a chips-to-platforms strategy that can be the catalyst for India to take a global leadership position. 

The author is former CEO, Prasar Bharati