 "Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh addresses the curtain raiser event of the three-day Startup Mahakumbh 2024, at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on Monda")
The government is in the final stages of creating a dedicated policy for deeptech startups, said Rajesh Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), on Monday. He also added that the policy is currently in its final stages of discussion.
“The government is in the process of creating a dedicated deeptech startup policy. It is in the final stages of inter-ministerial discussions. After finalising the policy, the government will look to set up a dedicated Fund of Funds that would invest in Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), which would, in turn, pump funds into deep tech startups,” said Singh. He was speaking at the inaugural session of the Startup Mahakumbh event in New Delhi.
Singh said that it is vital for startups to commercialise and develop intellectual property rights (IPR). “It's not enough to only innovate; you should be able to convert it into IPR which is of long-term benefit to the country and to yourself. Deeptech and extensive research and development is the answer to that,” he said.
In July last year, the government unveiled the Draft National Deep Tech Startup Policy (NDTSP) for public consultation, with the aim to help startups overcome challenges relating to funding, access to the right talent, and scaling their research and development operations.
“We will need a big deeptech fund of funds, which will deploy resources into alternative investment funds (AIFs), because much of the startup movement's success story has been because we were able to create the fund of funds,” said India's G20 sherpa Amitabh Kant while addressing the Startup Mahakumbh.
Later in December 2023, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) said that consultation for the Deep Tech Startup policy was over and a draft Cabinet note was in the works.
The development is in line with ongoing governmental efforts to bolster innovation in the deeptech sector.
The Union Cabinet recently approved an outlay of Rs 10,372 crore for five years for the India AI Mission, aimed at fostering innovation in artificial intelligence through public-private partnerships (PPPs).
Of this, close to Rs 2,000 crore has been earmarked for financing deeptech startups, with a focus on accelerating R&D in these firms.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in the 2024 Interim Budget, also announced that a new scheme will be launched for strengthening deep-tech technologies for defence purposes and expediting ‘Atmanirbharta’.
The new policy is expected to further open up opportunities and support the creation of new business models in the nascent sector, industry stakeholders said.
"If we can build the infrastructure for accelerated computing quickly and faster, research and innovation will happen. More importantly, you will add $1 trillion to the economy," said Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director, South Asia, NVIDIA. He was speaking at the event in a fireside chat with Rajan Anandan of PeakXV Partners.
According to Dhupar, globally, about $1 trillion has been invested in building compute infrastructure. Of this, India makes up less than 2 per cent of the share. Moreover, India's share in AI research is also around 2 per cent globally. Building proper infrastructure, he added, would bridge this gap.
With the availability of proper funding and support, the number of AI startups is likely to increase significantly. As per industry estimates, India is expected to be home to over 10,000 deeptech startups by 2030.
