Page 2 - Innovation

CII Summit 2025: Startup founders urge for domestic capital, tech push

Startup leaders at the CII Annual Business Summit 2025 highlighted India's skilled talent and urged stronger domestic investment and innovation to build global tech champions

India among top six nations in global 6G patent filings: MoS Telecom

With over 111 projects funded to the tune of Rs 300 crore, MoS Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani says 6G has the potential for an economic impact worth $1 trillion

From support hubs to the core, GCCs take lead in biz outcome, leadership

India's GCCs are evolving into strategic hubs, producing CXO-level talent as leaders drive global innovation, operations, and transformation from centres in the country

Deep tech not just for startups; govt, industry must step up: Bikhchandani

Joining the debate on Indian startups' focus on online deliveries and betting apps instead of deep tech, tech founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani on Monday said building deep tech isn't the responsibility of startups because funds required for it are too large, and the government as well as deep-pocketed groups such as Reliance and Adani will need to step in. In a longish post on X, Bikhchandani, a serial entrepreneur whose ventures include job portal Naukri.com, and matrimony site Jeevansathi.com and co-founding Ashoka University, said unlike startup funding, deep tech investing needs funds with a longer time horizon of more than 20-25 years. Investors such as venture firms and individual entrepreneurs will do what according to them makes commercial sense and "sometimes out of passion, romance and foolishness". "But even so if you can't make commercial sense out of it, they can't carry on indefinitely without financial support," he said. "And therefore, there is this gap between it being

India can be global hub for IP-led innovation: Accel's Prashanth Prakash

Asserting that there is "limitless headroom for entrepreneurs", Prashanth Prakash, partner at Accel says the venture capital firm will use its recently announced USD 650 million fund over the next two-three years to back start-ups focused on AI and tech-led industrialisation. The company is eyeing 20-25 start-up investments this year as it mounts an aggressive push to tap into India's growing innovation landscape. "If you're a start-up entrepreneur, there's no better time to begin. The number of sectors that start-ups are impacting is also 10-fold...it is more multi-dimensional and multi-sectoral," Prakash told PTI in an interview. "There are a lot of opportunities for founders who have the capability to imagine and envision what products India and the world need. There is limitless headroom for entrepreneurs," he said. While US tariff impact remains uncertain, India does have a strong potential to position itself as a global hub for IP-led innovation and high-value manufacturing,

The pilots for MuleHunter.AI have been successful, says Swaminathan

In December 2024, RBI launched MuleHunter.ai, developed by the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub, to help banks reduce digital fraud

Karnataka, Chile sign letter of intent to strengthen innovation, tech ties

In a significant step towards fostering international collaboration in science, technology, and innovation, the Karnataka government on Saturday announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with the Government of Chile during the Innovation Summit held in Bengaluru. The summit was organised as part of the official visit of H E Gabriel Boric, President of Chile, and his accompanying high-level delegation to India. According to an official statement, the LoI aims to establish a framework for mutual cooperation between Karnataka and Chile in key areas, including emerging technologies, startups, research and development, knowledge exchange, and skill development. The agreement reflects a shared commitment to deepen innovation-driven engagement and create pathways for collaborative growth between the two regions. Notably, Chile becomes the first Latin American country to partner with Karnataka under the Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) - a flagship initiative through which the

Tech Talk: Marico's Chairman on Leveraging Tech & Innovation for Business Growth

In this episode of Tech Talk, we sit down with the visionary Chairman of Marico to explore the role of technology and innovation in driving business growth.

Govt to scale up remote village innovations to create equal opportunities

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday said innovations originating in remote villages will be scaled up to create equal opportunities and resources and asserted grassroots innovators are being acknowledged for the first time in India under the Narendra Modi government. The Union Minister of State for Science and Technology was addressing the silver jubilee celebration of the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), an autonomous institute under Department of Science and Technology of the Centre. "Prime Minister Modi's commitment to 'Virasat Bhi aur Vikas Bhi' integrates India's exclusive traditional knowledge with cutting-edge technology," said Singh, who also released a postal stamp, a magazine titled 'Innovation frontline' and a coffee table book on the occasion. "Innovations originating in remote villages will be scaled up, ensuring equal opportunities and resources as available in urban areas," an official release quoted Singh as saying. He applauded India's transformation from

Budget strengthens India's position as innovation powerhouse, say startups

The Union Budget 2025-26 marks a significant milestone for India's startup ecosystem and reinforces the nation's position as a global innovation powerhouse, say startup players. On Saturday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a new Fund of Funds Scheme (FFS) with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore to promote the growth of budding entrepreneurs in the country. "This budget is a big win for India's startup ecosystem. The Rs 10,000 crore Fund of Funds, along with extended tax benefits and regulatory reforms, will provide the much-needed capital and ease of doing business for emerging ventures," said Shashvat Nakrani, Founder, BharatPe. Startup Policy Forum (SPF) President and CEO Shweta Rajpal Kohli said the creation of a new Fund of Funds will provide crucial financial support to emerging startups. "The introduction of a new scheme to support 5 lakh first-time women entrepreneurs is a bold and inclusive step forward. Furthermore, the establishment of 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labs an

The End of Progress? Trump era raises doubts over US innovation leadership

Although the US has long led the world in advancing basic science and technology, it is hard to see how this can continue under Mr Trump

Our capability centres turned into innovation hubs: Indian leaders at Davos

The global capability centres in India have transformed from being centres of cost arbitrage to global innovation hubs, Indian leaders said on Wednesday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. Speaking at a breakfast session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here, they also said there should be a consistent focus on upskilling the Indian talent pool. D Sridhar Babu, Telangana's Minister for Information Technology, Electronics & Communications; Industries & Commerce, said, "The Government of Telangana is working to put young Indians in Skills' University for training, coaching and tutoring that is required to upskill and reskill employees as well as people who would like to know about new technologies.. This has already started, and it is absolutely industry-driven where the government only acts as a facilitator, he added. Emphasising the importance of staying ahead in technological advancements, he said, "As the world is witnessing ...

Irdai expands scope of regulatory sandbox framework to foster innovation

Regulator Irdai has expanded the scope of regulatory sandbox framework to encourage proposals that foster innovation, improve efficiency and ease of doing business. The IRDAI (Regulatory Sandbox) Regulations, 2025 is now more of principle-based whereby operational aspects will be issued through a master circular, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) said in a statement. "A notable addition is an enabling provision to file Inter-Regulatory Sandbox proposals, cutting across more than one financial sector," the regulator said. Regulatory sandbox usually refers to live testing of new products or services in a controlled/test regulatory environment for which regulators may (or may not) permit certain relaxations for the limited purpose of the testing. Further, regulations on maintenance of information by the regulated entities and sharing of information too have been consolidated by the regulator. The regulation mandates electronic record-keeping with robust

Beyond Snack raises $8.3 million in series A round for expansion efforts

The fresh funds will be used for expansion into new territories, product innovation, and strengthening its supply chain infrastructure

India is a great innovation hotspot for Lenovo: MD Shailendra Katyal

India has become a very important hub. But it's not the only hub for us to innovate, given our width of solutions

Tech Talk with Lenovo India MD on Indian market needs, tech innovations and more

Tune in to this engaging Tech Talk episode, where Business Standard's Pranjal Sharma sits down with Shailendra Katyal, MD of Lenovo India. Shailendra shares his expert perspective

Our India centre global innovation hub, not low-cost back office: Jayabalan

Jayabalan said the India GTDC is playing a crucial role for driving global innovations at the firm and the plan is to continue scaling up the centre both in terms of capacity and capabilities

How Social Entrepreneurship can Drive Businesses Towards Success

Manager’s Mantra presents an insightful conversation with Advait Kumar, Founder of Boon. Advait shares valuable lessons for future managers and entrepreneurs.

Cabinet approves continuation of Atal Innovation Mission till March 2028

The Cabinet on Monday approved the continuation of Niti Aayog's flagship initiative Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), with an enhanced scope of work and allocated budget of Rs 2,750 crore, till March 31, 2028. According to an official statement, AIM 2.0 is a step towards Viksit Bharat that aims to expand, strengthen, and deepen India's already vibrant innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. The statement said while building on the accomplishments of AIM 1.0, such as Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) and Atal Incubation Centers (AIC), AIM 2.0 marks a qualitative shift in the mission's approach. "Whereas AIM 1.0 involved implementing programmes that built new innovation infrastructure to strengthen India's then-nascent ecosystem, AIM 2.0 involves piloting new initiatives designed to fill gaps in the ecosystem and scaling successes through central and state governments, industry, academia and community," it added. AIM 2.0 is designed to strengthen India's innovation and entrepreneurship ...

'Need to build mobility innovations with people-centric approach'

They emphasised the need for collective innovation to build a robust infrastructure, including electrified buses and smart mobility solutions