India’s Former Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, shared an unfiltered perspective on the recent debate sparked by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal’s comments about Indian startups focussing on consumer products instead of large-scale problem solving, deep-tech and innovation.
Speaking at the Tech Frontiers Forum at India Global Forum’s ‘NXT25: Leading the Leap’ summit this week, Chandrasekhar said: “I disagree with this characterisation (of pitting consumer-centric Indian startups against innovation-centric ones).
“I don’t think this is binary; there are many innovations that Indian entrepreneurs have done that are not deep tech, but in quick commerce and e-commerce. If something is not in deep tech it doesn’t make it less innovative.
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“Deep Tech is the new battleground. Players in this battleground: China, through DeepSeek, has made it clear that it is no longer a consumer of Deep Tech. On the other hand, India has its ambitions not to be crowded out in this race.”
Against the backdrop of India's rapid digital transformation, the Tech Frontiers Forum explored breakthrough innovations shaping the global tech landscape. From AI-driven supply chains and quantum computing to sustainable innovation and digital infrastructure, industry leaders and policymakers examined the opportunities, risks, and disruptions defining the next era of technological advancement.
In a virtual address, Lord Patrick Vallance, UK Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation, spoke about strengthening UK-India collaboration in future-defining technologies: “By working together on technologies that will undoubtedly shape our future we can improve the lives of our citizens and support business.”
In a conversation themed, ‘Voice, Vernacular, Vision – Unlocking India’s AI Potential for All’, Manu Jain, CEO, G42 India said, “We, as Indians, have been the largest consumers of tech products and services. When it comes to AI, it will be a bigger transformation, and we must ensure some part of it should be here locally through data sovereignty, which means all data of Indian users stays in India.”
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Keshav Reddy, Founder and CEO, Equal AI, noted: “India has the opportunity to become the largest consumer of application AI. In rural India, you see a lot of people exchanging voice notes due to lack of digital literacy of typing vs voice which is easy. Hence, voice LLMs that can converse with a speech-to-speech model is the future.”
*Info: India Global Forum