India’s Emerging Homegrown Innovation Ecosystem

21 Sep 2026

Tags: Science & Technology   S&T Developments   Technology indigenization

Source: The Hindu

Context: India is witnessing a gradual shift from technology importer to technology developer, driven by public research institutions, corporate Research and Development (R&D), and deep-tech startups.

• Emerging capabilities in Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductors, 6G, space technology and affordable biomedical innovations indicate a maturing domestic innovation ecosystem.

Growth of India’s Innovation Ecosystem

• Patent filings: Increased from over 1.10 lakh in 2024–25 to more than 1.43 lakh in 2025–26, a 30.2% rise; domestic applicants account for nearly 70%.
• Patent stock: India had just over 2.4 lakh patents in force in 2025, far below China (5.7 million), the U.S. (3.5 million) and Japan (2.1 million) based on 2024 data.
• R&D expenditure: India spends just under 1% of GDP on R&D, compared with about 2.4% in China and 3.5% in the U.S.
• Key concern: High filing numbers do not necessarily translate into patent grants, commercialisation or industrial innovation, indicating possible abandonment, low grant rates and a weak patent-to-market pipeline.

Three Emerging Pillars

1. Public Research

• Government-supported institutions undertake long-gestation, high-risk R&D that may not immediately attract private investment.
• Public laboratories have increasingly generated technologies that can subsequently be transferred to industry and startups.

2. Corporate R&D

• Private-sector R&D spending exceeded combined government R&D spending for the first time in 2024.
• Private R&D is projected to account for around 55% of total R&D spending in 2025–26, indicating a growing role of domestic industry in innovation.

3. Deep-Tech Entrepreneurship

• Startups are increasingly moving beyond conventional service-platform models towards deep technology, advanced manufacturing and frontier research.
• Government support for Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) and private capital are helping startups commercialise high-risk technologies.

GaN Semiconductor Technology: From Strategic Dependence to Indigenous Capability

• In March 2023, scientists at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)’s Solid State Physics Laboratory (SSPL), Delhi, and Gallium Arsenide Enabling Technology Centre (GAETEC), Hyderabad, demonstrated Gallium Nitride (GaN) Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs).
• GaN-based technologies are strategically important for advanced radar, space systems and next-generation communication networks.
• DRDO is transferring GaN High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT)-based MMIC technology for applications in 5G/6G infrastructure, electric-vehicle onboard chargers and renewable-energy inverters.
• India is among seven countries reported to have mastered this technology: China, France, Germany, Russia, South Korea, the U.S. and India.
• AGNIT Semiconductors, a spin-off from the Indian Institute of Science’s Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE), is translating indigenous GaN technology into commercial applications.

Why GaN Matters

• GaN is a wide-bandgap semiconductor capable of operating at higher power, frequency and temperature than conventional silicon-based technologies.
• It is particularly useful in high-frequency communication, radar, power electronics and aerospace applications.

India’s Shift from Technology Implementer to Innovator

• The Bharat 6G Alliance (B6GA) aims to contribute 10% of global 6G patents by 2030.
• Its members have made over 7,700 patent filings in 5G and 6G, including more than 4,400 foreign filings.
• India also made nearly 3,000 technical contributions to 3GPP in the previous year, around 15 times the 2020 level.
• Jio Platforms Limited entered the top 20 international patent filers in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s 2025 Patent Cooperation Treaty rankings, ranking 19th globally.

Why Standards Matter

• Ownership of Intellectual Property (IP) and participation in international standards determine how economic value is distributed in emerging technologies.
• 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) develops global technical specifications for mobile telecommunications, making participation important for influencing future communication standards.
• Standard-essential patents are patents covering technologies necessary to implement a technical standard; their ownership can provide significant economic and strategic leverage.

Rise of India’s Deep-Tech Startups

Space Technology

• Pixxel Space is developing hyperspectral imaging, with six satellites in orbit and a planned constellation of 18–24 satellites.
• Skyroot Aerospace has advanced private-sector launch capabilities through its Vikram-1 launch vehicle.
• Agnikul Cosmos, nurtured by IIT Madras, is pursuing fully reusable launch-vehicle technology.
• These developments can strengthen India’s position in cost-effective commercial space technology.

Affordable Biomedical Innovation

• ImmunoACT, incubated at IIT Bombay in partnership with the Tata Memorial Centre, developed NexCAR19, India’s first indigenous CAR-T cell therapy.
• NexCAR19 has expanded access to advanced cancer treatment at around one-tenth of conventional treatment costs.
• Remidio Innovative Solutions, supported at an early stage by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), uses smartphone-enabled retinal imaging and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect conditions such as diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.

Key Institutional Linkages

• India’s emerging innovation model increasingly connects government laboratories → academic institutions → startups/industry → commercial markets.
• The GaN example illustrates this pipeline: public institutions developed foundational technology, academia nurtured research and talent, and startups are pursuing commercialisation.
• Such linkages help bridge the gap between basic research and market-ready technology.

Challenges to India’s Innovation Ecosystem

• Low R&D intensity: India’s R&D expenditure remains below that of major technology economies.
• Weak commercialisation: Patent generation does not automatically result in commercially successful products.
• Patent pipeline gaps: Low grants and patent abandonment can reduce the impact of high filing volumes.
• Technology-transfer barriers: Publicly funded Intellectual Property (IP) requires more predictable and standardised technology-transfer mechanisms.
• Patent examination capacity: Greater examiner capacity is required to process growing patent applications efficiently.
• Translational funding gap: Technologies often require additional financing between patent grant and the first paying customer, commonly known as the commercialisation or “valley of death” gap.

Way Forward

• Increase public and private R&D investment, particularly in frontier and high-risk technologies.
• Strengthen industry–academia–government collaboration for technology transfer and commercialisation.
• Standardise technology-transfer frameworks for publicly funded IP.
• Expand patent-office examination capacity and improve processing efficiency.
• Create stronger financing mechanisms for prototype development, scale-up and first-market deployment.
• Increase Indian participation in global technology standards and standard-setting bodies.

Conclusion: India’s innovation ecosystem is gradually moving from technology adoption to technology creation, with public research, private R&D and deep-tech entrepreneurship increasingly converging to build indigenous intellectual property and industrial capabilities.