Deep Tech Start-ups

Why in news?

The office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government has put out a draft National Deep Tech Start-up Policy.

What is deep tech start-up?

Deep-tech start-ups in India raised 2.7 billion dollars in venture funding in 2021, and accounts for over 12% of the country’s overall startup ecosystem, as per NASSCOM study.

• It refers to a class of startup businesses that develop new offerings based on tangible engineering innovation or scientific discoveries and advances.
• Deep Technology refers to innovations founded on advanced scientific and technological breakthroughs like Artificial Intelligence, Quantum computing, drones etc.,
• The Great Indian Start-up Boom of the last decade, led by young entrepreneurs and catalysed by the government’s Start-up India movement, created an environment of entrepreneurship in India.

What are the advantages of deep tech start-ups?

• Address real world problems- It can create more effective, efficient, and sustainable solutions.
  • Example- AI and machine learning can diagnose diseases, optimize supply chains and improve energy efficiency.
• Create new industries- The rise of quantum computing is expected to revolutionize fields such as finance, cryptography, and logistics.
• Foster innovation- It helps innovation in variety of fields.
  • IIT Madras’s Research Park, which has incubated over 200 deep tech companies cumulatively valued at over ₹50,000 crore including those in space and aviation.
• Increase the patents- National Chemical Laboratory’s Venture Centre supported to file and commercialise high-quality patents.
• Encourage investments- Discovery through start-ups founded by themselves foster independent decisions which leverages deep historical investments in S&T in its public labs and institutions.
• Technology risks- Deep tech startups are the main route through which India is taking technology risks, a crucial element to build new capabilities.

What are the key provisions under draft policy?

• Aim- To support and nurture the unique requirements of deep tech start-ups in India.
• It serves as a comprehensive framework to address the challenges faced by deep tech startups and provide definitive policy interventions to enhance the ecosystem.

• Enhance technology commercialisation
  • Creating seamless partnerships between academic institutions, research labs and industry.
  • Technology commercialisation offices within academic institutes and research labs.
  • Providing a set of guidelines for commercialisation of publicly funded research.
• Open Science Data Sharing Platform- It is set up to encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing among the stakeholders to promote deep tech innovations.
• Increase R&D expenditure- It is the critical base for scientific human resource.
• Simplify intellectual property- It aims to establish a single window platform that enables a Unified IP Framework, customised for deep tech start-ups.
• Ease regulatory requirements- It suggests the creation of Export Promotion Board to ease barriers of entry for Indian deep tech start-ups into foreign markets.
• Resource intensive policy approach- To attract global talent, such as offering networking opportunities to international deep tech startups and experts interested in relocating and contributing to the local ecosystem.
• Inter-Ministerial Deep Tech Committee- It is constituted to regularly review the requirements of enabling the deep tech ecosystem to function better.

What lies ahead?

• Finance- The government must lay emphasis on the deep tech sectors in existing SIDBI Fund of Funds.
• Industry must increase and channel their research funds.
• Enable mass procurement- There is a need to mass procure indigenously developed technologies across the ministries.
• Focus on Start-up India 2.0- The energies of India’s entrepreneurs should be directed towards building Indian industrial and public capabilities.

References

1. The Hindu- Deep tech start-ups taking brave risks
2. The Hindu- Deep tech start-up policy draft
3. PIB- Deep tech start-up policy for public consultation