As we step into the New Year, the world is full of opportunities driven by technology shifts as well as regions in turbulence due to Geopolitical tensions. As a citizen and as an enterprise, we are faced with innumerable choices to make to live and learn to grow in such a dynamic situation. Being the third largest startup ecosystem in the world, our startups are not immune to these rapid changes, and it is important that we focus on a few key dimensions to steer our startup ecosystem in this second half of the decade.

Given the context we are situated in, I would pick Deep tech/ Deep science, Funding, Industry Academia collaboration, Governance and National priorities or missions as the critical vectors to guide the startup ecosystem in India. In this writeup, I focus on Deep Tech and Funding vectors to outline the status and future options.

But here's the twist: the next frontier isn't technology-it is systems thinking. The world no longer rewards specialists who know one thing deeply in isolation; it rewards those who can connect domains.

In an academic context, we are often divided or split by fields of study called Departments. This is more of a convenience for studying as it groups people and topics by common interest and goals. However, the world is not divided by such clear semantic or administrative boundaries. The current global context is always cross domain driven and a blend of many science and social factors. It is not only an interesting mix of science streams but also an eclectic mix of social sciences.

India's advantage is not cost anymore— We are a good reservoir of talent as well as a big market. The initial challenges of capital availability for ventures are addressed mostly and early-stage investing is quite a common asset portfolio strategy. With ANRF and RDI, we now straddle the lower TRLs with higher TRLs to address the chasm challenge in Deep tech or Deep Science research led projects. It is a significant shift in our policy and scope of coverage by blending both grant capital and commercial capital. While it is still early to assess outcomes, this approach signals an important shift in how deep tech innovation is being supported in India.

The opportunity landscape can be broadly divided into THREE main tracks based on many research reports and I have added a fourth one given our regional culture.

• Core Compute and Connectivity focused topics - Semi/Quantum/AI/Space tech
• Climate driven topics - Energy/Mobility/Water/Agri
• Care focused topics - Medical/Bio/Wellness
• Community focused topics - Education, Urban design, Communication, HR, Psychology

While these are meta classifications, they do overlap and leverage each other’s topics in terms of tools and techniques.

The intersectionality defines our potential for growth and differentiation. It defines the entry barrier too so that we keep head above the competition!

Together, these domains point toward one reality: the age of intelligence and interdependence.

Let us look forward to such a future but drive towards it deliberately and diligently!