Opinion Ram Madhav writes: Modi government is investing in tech. Private sector must step up

India’s corporates, state governments, academic institutions and research organisations must come together to catch up with the energy, speed, vision, and, most importantly, the urgency of the PM

Narendra Modi government, Modi government, Modi government investing in tech, semiconductors, quantum computing, green tech, Narendra Modi, artificial intelligence, Indian express news, current affairsPrime Minister Narendra Modi
October 18, 2025 06:48 AM IST First published on: Oct 18, 2025 at 06:48 AM IST

In recent years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasised enhancing India’s preparedness in areas like artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum computing and green tech. The PM devoted considerable time to these issues in his Independence Day address this year. He insisted that every sector — MSMEs, education, healthcare, transport, agriculture — needs modernisation and innovation. He argued that self-reliance in technology, including deep tech, is essential for national security and strategic autonomy. He cautioned that excessive dependence on foreign technology weakens the nation.

“India must reduce dependence on foreign weapons, energy and critical technologies,” he said, pointedly asking, “if we have the capability, why should India’s money flow outside?”. Underscoring that the future of the world is connected with semiconductors, modern technology and AI, he called on the youth to “dream big”. He raised pertinent issues like — “Will we make our own EV batteries?”; “We need our own patented medicines”; and “We must become atmanirbhar in energy”. He called on industry stakeholders and the private sector to come forward in this effort.

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The Modi government has set up several missions around the deep-tech frontier — India Semiconductor Mission, National Quantum Mission, India AI Mission, Deep-tech Fund of Funds, and Anusandhan National Research Foundation. The government’s effort is to achieve strategic autonomy and self-reliance in these areas and also to position India as one of the leading deep-tech powers by 2035.

This is ambitious for any country. However, for India, it is a necessity. The new world is going to be controlled by countries with deep-tech power. The 20th century was all about capital and trade, whereas the 21st century is going to be about capital and technology. If India is to realise its dream of emerging as a global leader in the next couple of decades, besides the size of its economy, the strength and resilience of its frontier tech innovation and R&D systems will play a crucial role.

The big question is whether all this can be possible only through the government efforts or if several other stakeholders need to pitch in to augment the pace of our progress. Until now, the major burden of promoting India’s deep-tech revolution has been shouldered by the government. India spends roughly 0.65 per cent of its GDP on R&D in science and technology. It is well below the spending of technologically advanced countries like China (2.4 per cent), the US (3.4 per cent), South Korea (4.9 per cent), and Japan (3.3 per cent). These figures may be deceptive as each country’s GDP is different. In real terms, India spends roughly $15 billion on R&D, while China spends more than $600 billion and the US more than $1 trillion.

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This humongous gap in R&D spending is a major challenge for India in realising its ambition. But the challenge stems not from the government’s inability to spend more but the private sector’s reluctance to chip in. In most technologically advanced countries, the share of private sector spending on R&D has been upwards of 70 per cent. It is around just 30 per cent in India. While the entire private sector spending on R&D in India remains below $5 billion, American chip majors like NVIDIA and IBM alone spend $13 billion and $8 billion, respectively. Several of those companies allocate upwards of 10 per cent of their revenues to R&D, while in India, such allocations remain negligible.

Given this resource crunch, the pace of India’s deep-tech R&D and innovation is slow. In areas like AI and quantum computing, the government’s push is yielding good results, but it can only help the country catch up with advanced countries. What India needs to aim for is not just to follow the curve but to move ahead of it. Despite its linguistic diversity, vast literature and large amounts of data in regional languages and dialects, India has not been able to develop its own AI-based Large Language Model. Some minor efforts did succeed, but they remain inferior in scale and efficiency. While advanced countries produced commercially accessible quantum machines with more than 100 qubits and IBM announced the release of its Kookaburra quantum processor with 1,386 qubit capacity in a multi-chip configuration in 2025, India’s IITs are still at an experimental stage with 25-qubit quantum computers.

The Modi government has seen major successes in the renewable energy sector. In the last 10 years, it grew significantly to reach 50 per cent of the country’s total power capacity. However, the import dependence of this sector is a cause for concern. Until last year, our import dependency for solar modules stood at 80 per cent and inverters at 60 per cent. In critical minerals like lithium, cobalt and nickel, essential for the renewable energy industry, our import dependence is near 100 per cent. In the EV sector, Indian companies like Tata and Mahindra made significant advances. The PM proudly announced that the country has the potential to export those vehicles to over 100 countries. But the sector depends heavily on imports — almost 100 per cent in battery cells and 70 per cent in several other components. This dependency is largely on China. In an age of growing nationalisms impacting supply-chain resilience, this is worrying.

It is this scenario that prompted PM Modi to infuse massive government funding into indigenous R&D. His relentless campaign to encourage innovation and startups is also yielding tangible results. However, what is needed is a whole-of-nation approach. India’s corporates, state governments, academic institutions and research organisations must come together to catch up with the energy, speed, vision, and, most importantly, the urgency of the PM.

If we fail, we will not become leaders but remain “also-rans” in a world fast transitioning to the Industry 5.0 era.

The writer, president, Indian Foundation, is with the BJP

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