National Startup Day 2026: Can India’s Deep-Tech Moment Become a Global Lead?

From labs to markets, India’s next startup leap depends on capital patience, enterprise adoption, and policy clarity
As India approaches National Startup Day 2026, the conversation around startups is shifting from scale-at-speed to scale-with-substance. Deep tech, artificial intelligence, climate technologies, and next-generation mobility are no longer fringe innovation bets; they are central to how India positions itself in the global technology value chain.

While India’s startup ecosystem has expanded rapidly over the past decade, deep-tech ventures face a distinctly different journey. Long research cycles, high capital intensity, regulatory complexity, and enterprise adoption hurdles continue to separate promising innovation from sustainable businesses.

To understand what must change for India’s deep-tech startups to compete globally, CiOL spoke with Dr Sunil Shekhawat, co-founder and CEO of SanchiConnect, a long-time ecosystem builder who has worked closely with founders, investors, enterprises, and government innovation programmes.

Interview Excerpts: 

India has made progress in deep-tech research and incubation, but commercialisation remains uneven. Where do you see the biggest structural gaps between lab-grade innovation and scalable market adoption?

India’s innovation pipeline is wide enough at the lab and proof-of-concept level, thanks to continuous push from across ministries through their sponsor channels and the growing number of incubation centres at both government and private institutions. However, major structural gaps exist when it comes to translating research into viable products. First, while there is increasing spend from private R&D, the numbers still fall significantly low, far below China and the U.S., which skews innovation towards early stages and results in a shallow pipeline of commercially ready innovations.

Second, industry-academia has just started building meaningful relations; the mindset shift from purely research to business orientation has a long way to go.  

Finally, domestic market readiness for high-cost, complex technologies is uneven, pushing many founders to chase global customers prematurely, which increases commercialisation risk and costs.

Despite increased investor interest, deep-tech startups still face long funding cycles and high technical risk. Is India’s current capital ecosystem aligned with the timelines and patience deep-tech innovation demands

India’s capital ecosystem has grown rapidly and has continuously been following the North Star for a while. As a nation which ventured into deep tech very recently, we are not so badly placed. The government's recent move on building an INR 1 lakh crore fund of funds for deep tech is a promising step to take the ecosystem to the next orbit, where capital access and duration to avail that are bound to improve significantly. We are not too far from being a nation which will be embracing deep tech with open arms both on the adoption and investment front in the coming 2-3 years.

Large enterprises often engage with startups through pilots but hesitate at full-scale deployment. What changes are required on the enterprise side to make startup partnerships commercially meaningful rather than exploratory?

The larger the enterprise (elephant), the harder it is to move. Over the years, while building processes and structures, any organisation ends up building firewalls which are hard to break and, unfortunately, are designed by the most learnt people from management. This has given stability and predictability to the organisation but has definitely taken the agility out. Startups are agile because they are highly disorganised in most of the cases, which gives them the ability to move fast and learn faster.

Open innovation’s bigger challenge is to break the psychological walls which got built under the shadow of process orientation. In addition, while the co-creation and rapid-fire of product evolutions gives a momentary satisfaction to both the receiving and delivering sides, it also gives birth to reliability to stay and hold it forever. At times, it becomes hard for both sides to believe and invest in it beyond shorter-run pilots, which may give brownie points to both but low business value in the longer run.

Government initiatives have expanded funding access and visibility for startups. In your view, what policy or regulatory shifts are now needed to support deep-tech scale, especially in sectors like AI, climate tech, and mobility?

To support deep-tech scale, India needs policies that go beyond visibility and grants to de-risk commercialisation. First, streamlined regulatory pathways and unified tech policy frameworks would reduce delays that can slow prototypes from entering real-world use, especially for AI and climate technologies.

Second, expanding R&D tax incentives and co-investment vehicles tailored to deep tech (like ANRF and RDI) can attract private capital into long-gestation projects. Dedicated deep-tech bonds or sovereign funds can provide the patient capital these sectors require.

Third, special regulatory sandboxes for AI, autonomous mobility, and clean-energy innovations can help startups test products with regulatory oversight, reducing compliance risk while generating data for scaling.

Talent and research ecosystem policies (such as expanded fellowships, specialised AI/quantum PhD programmes, and industry-academia collaboration incentives) will be crucial for building future-ready capabilities in coming years.

As Indian startups compete globally, how critical are IP ownership, specialised talent, and global market access, and where is India currently underprepared on these fronts?

IP ownership, specialised talent, and global market access are critical pillars for global competitiveness. Strong IP ensures startups can protect and monetise their core innovations internationally; without robust protection and enforcement, founders risk losing value to larger global players or being outpaced by overseas competitors. However, India’s patent processing times are longer, and global filings are costly, creating strategic disadvantages.

On talent, India produces many STEM graduates, but there’s a shortage of highly specialised researchers and deep-tech practitioners in fields like AI, quantum computing, and advanced materials. Reports suggest limited PhD outputs and a brain drain towards tech hubs abroad, which undermines India’s ability to build cutting-edge innovation domestically.

Global market access is also uneven; Indian startups often lack international partnerships, go-to-market networks, and localised product strategies for global deployment. While digital deep-tech can scale faster, hardware-heavy ventures face barriers due to infrastructure and regulatory cross-border challenges. Addressing these gaps through IP facilitation programmes, talent development incentives, and export-orientated startup accelerators will be key to competing globally.

Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, which structural factor – capital, compute, regulation, enterprise demand, or founder maturity – will most influence whether India’s deep-tech startups lead globally or remain regionally focused?

All these factors interplay, but capital depth, compute infrastructure, and regulation will be especially pivotal. Without patient, mission-aligned capital, startups cannot sustain long R&D cycles or scale globally. While investor interest is growing, legacy funding models still prioritise quick returns over deep innovation.

Compute and infrastructure, like accessible high-performance computing clusters, advanced fabrication facilities, and standardised testbeds, will accelerate product development, especially in AI and advanced hardware domains. India’s current infrastructure footprint lags behind major tech leaders.

At the same time, predictable, innovation-friendly regulation, including clear AI governance, support for data-driven products, and sustainability-focused frameworks, will shape how rapidly new technologies enter markets at home and abroad.

Finally, founder maturity and ecosystem sophistication will increasingly define outcomes. Deep-tech founders who understand international standards, market dynamics, and IP strategy will be better positioned to cross borders. Growing mentorship networks, global partnerships, and founder education will be key enablers.

In essence, India’s future role in global deep tech hinges on an ecosystem that supports long-term capital, advanced infrastructure, smart regulation, and founder readiness to compete on a global stage.