Innovate or be eaten: On India and an innovative ecosystem
There is no question that Indian professionals are capable of pathbreaking innovation. As evidenced by the strong representation of Indian and Indian-origin technology industry leaders, Indian executives have displayed extraordinary talent in both the managerial and technical work that goes into building and advancing complex businesses at the forefront of the global economy’s most important engines. ‘Bharat Innovates 2026’, the event in Nice, France, supported by the Ministry of Education , has shown that many of these innovations are possible in India, and that patient incubation of startups in key strategic areas can lead to exceptional results that are competitive with the best-in-class globally. India’s potential to be a global home for innovation is real, especially with the kind of middle power collaboration that French President Emmanuel Macron advocated for at the event. The innovation question is key to processing the aftermath of Anthropic’s most powerful AI models, Claude Mythos and Fable, being banned for non-Americans, a move that has already affected some Indian entities and users. Perhaps it is not possible to brute-force frontier AI or semiconductor technology, given the tens of billions of dollars even a single player requires to make incremental advances in these fields. Becoming an AI deployment superpower, as many tech policymakers advocate, may also be a pursuit of a losing battle; India, after all, is not alone in seeking knowledge economy efficiencies from AI. But the field of opportunities remains nonetheless vast: deep tech in areas such as space exploration, defence, and even material sciences remain an open contest. For India to pursue innovation, two ingredients are important: India must be a stable and attractive home for capital and talent. For the former, the swashbuckling rent-seeking of the successful must be reined in to keep innovators from dreading success on Indian soil; venture capital must be in a position to assess exploratory and cutting-edge pitches on the same footing as they do in other countries; and tax policies must be clear and predictable. To be an attractive home for talent, what is required is quite simple: the top talent must look forward to their future in India, instead of running into a dead end for their potential and the life they feel greener pastures may afford them. For this, investments in public goods such as clean air, abundant urban green spaces, and affordable and reliable public transport can go a long way. These are, after all, what returnees miss the most. Some of India’s oldest and most stubborn problems are in the way of a truly innovative ecosystem. The good news is that these problems need political capital, not risk capital. India / technology (general) / economy (general) / France / ministers (government) / government departments / education / Artificial Intelligence / semiconductors and active components / space programme / defence / public transport / politics / investments
- 1On governance, the editorial's plea for predictable tax policy and curbing rent-seeking connects to India's constitutional framework for economic policy, where Article 39 of the Directive Principles directs the State to prevent concentration of wealth and ensure ownership serves the common good. Stable, rule-bound administration is what investors mean by 'ease of doing business', a metric on which India climbed sharply in the World Bank rankings before they were discontinued in 2021. Reliable institutions, not ad hoc interventions, are what convert innovative potential into durable enterprise.
- 2Geopolitically, Macron's 'middle power collaboration' reflects a strategy by which states like India and France hedge against a bipolar US-China technology race. India advances this through plurilateral platforms such as the India-France strategic partnership, the Quad, and the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, which India chaired. The reported restriction of advanced AI models to American users illustrates how technology access is increasingly weaponised, pushing middle powers toward shared sovereign capability.
- 3On the regulatory front, an innovation ecosystem depends on predictable intellectual-property and competition law; India's regime rests on the Patents Act, 1970, and the Competition Act, 2002, enforced by the Competition Commission of India. Landmark disputes such as Novartis v. Union of India (2013), which upheld Section 3(d) against ever-greening of patents, show how courts balance innovation incentives with public interest. Clear, time-bound adjudication is essential so that, as the author urges, success is not dreaded but rewarded.
- 4Economically, the scale challenge is stark: a single frontier-AI or semiconductor advance can require tens of billions of dollars, which is why India's roughly 76,000-crore-rupee Semicon India programme and the 10,000-crore-rupee IndiaAI Mission target deployment and design rather than fabrication from scratch. India ranks among the world's top three startup ecosystems by number of unicorns, yet gross R&D spending sits near 0.65 percent of GDP, well below the 2 to 4 percent seen in leading innovators. Closing that gap is the quiet structural reform the editorial implies.
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