Leaders call for convergence and collaboration at The Hindu Deep Tech Summit

The opening panel of The Hindu Deep Tech Summit 2026, held in collaboration with SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST), set the tone for a day of forward-looking conversations on technology and its role in shaping India’s future. Titled “The Deep Tech Decade: Engineering the Next Revolution”, the session – organised at Feathers, A Radha Hotel, on Monday (April 6, 2025) – brought together voices from academia and industry. Moderated by Suresh Vijayaraghavan, Chief Technology Officer at The Hindu Group, the panel featured Nitin Nagarkar, Thirumalai Srinivasan, Dinesh Kumar Sundaravelu and Kannan Vijaya Raghavan.

The panel concurred that India stands at a decisive moment. “The time is right for our country to pitch in,” said Dr. Nagarkar, pro vice-chancellor of Medical Sciences at SRMIST, describing a phase in which deep technologies, from artificial intelligence to robotics, will move beyond labs to touch everyday life.

Deep tech’s impact

For Mr. Srinivasan, director of entrepreneurship and innovation at SRM and Industry, the next decade will be anchored by two sectors: semiconductors and renewable energy. Together, he suggested, they could position India not just as a participant but as a global manufacturing hub.

Others widened the lens. Mr. Sundaravelu, CEO, at the Tamil Nadu Research Park Foundation, pointed to the rise of multi-stakeholder partnerships, where governments, startups and institutions collaborate across geographies, from metros to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, to accelerate innovation.

At the centre of the discussion was a single, recurring idea: convergence.

Mr. Raghavan, president at the Society for Technology Management, said that no discipline can operate in isolation anymore. Breakthroughs, whether in drug discovery or medtech, now sit at the intersection of biology, engineering, computing and clinical sciences, he said. “Individual sciences cannot create products today,” he noted.

Industry and academia

Relating the inter-disciplinary convergence to the evolving role of universities, Mr. Srinivasan emphasised the need for the academia to embrace failure as part of the process, while industry must step in to guide ideas toward real-world outcomes.

That journey, from lab to market, remains one of the biggest challenges. While foundational research often begins in universities, translating it into viable products requires funding, incubation and regulatory support. Panelists called for stronger “translational ecosystems” and more flexible, sandbox-style regulations to enable faster experimentation. The role of government, they agreed, is critical, not just in funding but in shaping policy and talent pipelines. As India transitions from a service-led economy to a product-driven one, the need for a new kind of workforce is becoming clear.

“Gone are the days when a degree alone defines talent,” Mr. Srinivasan observed, pointing to a future where adaptability and skillsets will matter more than formal qualifications.

As the discussion drew to a close, there was a broad agreement on where the biggest disruptions will unfold: healthcare, biotech and semiconductors. Yet, the larger takeaway was less about sectors and more about systems. India’s deep tech future, the panel suggested, will not be built in silos, but through collaboration, convergence and a willingness to rethink how innovation itself is done.