The Rise of a Truly Atmanirbhar India: From Assembly to Imagination
At
the outset, allow me to recap a key point from an earlier blog in which I
discussed what, in my view, embodies the true spirit of Atmanirbhar Bharat. (The
piece is referenced at the end.):
Two
tribes of opinion repeatedly torment me. First are the zealots who chant
Vishwaguru while reality smoulders quietly behind them. For them, Indian
Railways (IR) is racing ahead, facts and derailments notwithstanding, and hype
substitutes for delivery. At the opposite pole sit those who view IR as a
hopeless relic, incapable of tightening a nut without divine intervention and a
five-year committee report. In their eyes, every success is a fluke and every
reform a failure.
Both camps are insufferable
in their own ways. One worships the global to the point of paralysis, the other
clings to a parochial fantasy world. The truth, as we see frequently, lies somewhere
in between. We need to be sensibly local without being delusional, global
without being derivative or imitative. For all who avert their gaze from
reason’s middle road, I offer Touchstone’s timeless reminder from the Bard’s As You Like It, "…The fool doth think he is wise, but the
wise man knows himself to be a fool…".
My
point was simple. If the global gap is bridgeable, then copy, borrow, adapt,
reverse-engineer, but let the final outcome bear our own imprint, our
creativity, our imagination. Ownership followed by pride comes from creation,
not oxymoronic transfer of technology.
Our habit of celebrating mediocrity is
perplexing. Nearly 100 years ago, a famous
economist named Horace Secrist wrote
a book with the provocative title The Triumph of Mediocrity in Business, after spending ten years collecting and
analyzing data on the success of companies in dozens of industries. The
book details his conclusion that competitive forces drive businesses toward
average results, with top and bottom performers regressing to the mean. It’s so
true for India in all sectors as all organizations which show promise soon
regress to mediocrity, which continues to be glorified. I can say without
hesitation that the Vande Bharat, a subject I should know well as the project
leader, was a proud first step toward an indigenous train set, but it was never
the world-class marvel it is often portrayed as. We hoped that the technology
would evolve rapidly through our own efforts toward higher speeds, greater
reliability and better passenger amenities. Instead, it has multiplied to
nearly 160 services with little meaningful improvement. Even a basic Sleeper
version remains unfinished, though it should have been ready years ago. The
only bright spot is the push for an indigenous high-speed train capable of 250
kmph, but even that arose not from a natural progression of capability, but
from a failed negotiation with the Japanese.
A strong manufacturing base is vital for
growth and jobs. However, manufacturing that remains detached from design and
development, as is often the case today, cannot make India a global force. Our
pharmaceutical industry illustrates this point clearly. India produces more
than twenty percent of the world’s generic drugs, yet depends heavily on
imported ingredients and contributes little original R&D. We have capacity
but only modest influence in the global value chain. Production increases
output, but without embedded design and innovation, it does not create
leadership.
The semiconductor landscape has become
central to almost every modern technology. Industry 4.0, artificial
intelligence, electric mobility, renewable energy systems and telecom networks
all depend on specialised chips. India’s demand for semiconductors is rising
rapidly because of population growth, expanding digital services, the adoption
of electric vehicles, booming consumer electronics and the rollout of 5G
networks. The pandemic exposed the fragility of global supply chains when chip
shortages paralysed automotive and consumer durable sectors. This disruption
accelerated India’s resolve to localise semiconductor production. Transport and
mobility alone now require a wide range of specialised chips, creating space
for innovation that India must seize.
Policy support has improved
substantially. The India Semiconductor Mission, backed by a large outlay,
offers up to 50 percent capital support for fabrication units. The Scheme for
Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors provides
a 25 percent incentive for photovoltaic polysilicon, wafers, solar cells,
electronic components, subassemblies and e-waste recycling. The Production
Linked Incentive scheme has boosted the manufacturing of mobile phones,
components and semiconductor packaging. India’s semiconductor market, currently
around 25 billion USD, is projected to grow at more than 15 percent, attracting
entrepreneurs and investors who hope to build a more self-reliant supply chain.
Even with this momentum, India will not
acquire the stature of China, Taiwan or Singapore through demand and
manufacturing alone. Many global firms operate chip design centres in India and
a large pool of chip design engineers works here, but this is design undertaken
for others. India owns almost no significant chip design IP and its fabless
ecosystem remains nascent. Manufacturing and design must develop together to
create true technological depth.
India is at a crucial juncture. We have
excelled in large-scale manufacturing and efficient service delivery, yet the
engines of invention often lie elsewhere. Whether in electronics, mobility,
renewable energy or digital platforms, we have long relied on technologies
imagined outside our borders. This pattern must change if India is to claim
genuine leadership in the global technology arena.
Artificial intelligence
provides a revealing example. India is a major consumer of AI solutions and
uses them in banking, taxation, agriculture, e-commerce and public service
delivery. Companies everywhere are experimenting with chatbots, predictive
tools and data analytics. Yet it remains difficult to identify an AI
application created in India that has gained global traction or set a new
benchmark. We remain enthusiastic users rather than influential contributors.
Without ownership of underlying AI architectures and foundational modules, we
will continue to rely on imported models and frameworks, limiting our role in
shaping future innovation.
Microsoft’s announcement of a
17.5 billion dollars investment in India is undeniably encouraging. It promises
better access to compute infrastructure, development platforms for startups,
and AI tools for small businesses that once seemed far beyond reach. It signals
that India is being positioned to be central to the next decade of global
technology.
Yet major questions remain.
India’s AI regulatory framework is still incomplete, infrastructure outside big
cities is inadequate, and the talent pipeline may falter if skilling does not
keep pace. Investments on paper must be matched by power reliability, coherent
partnerships and policy clarity. Most importantly, these global investments
should not result in India remaining only a user base and delivery centre. India
must ensure that the excitement around foreign commitments does not overshadow
the deeper goal. Real
technological leadership will come not from deploying AI made elsewhere, but
from designing and owning AI products and architectures conceived in India.
The story in hardware parallels the
situation in software. India is one of the fastest growing markets for consumer
electronics, electric vehicles, metro systems, medical devices and
communication equipment. Yet many of the critical components that determine the
sophistication of these products continue to come from abroad. Controllers,
sensors, battery management systems, communication modules and advanced chips
are sourced from global suppliers. In areas where India aspires to global
reach, the strategic technologies remain outside national control.
Correcting this imbalance calls for more
than enthusiasm for domestic manufacturing. It requires a firm commitment to
original design, R&D and product development. Countries that dominate
semiconductor technology or artificial intelligence did so through integrated
ecosystems where design, fabrication, R&D and IP creation strengthened one
another. India has the talent for a similar ascent. Our engineers and
researchers are among the best in the world, and many start-ups are attempting
breakthroughs in materials science, automotive electronics, deep learning,
industrial automation and biotechnology. What we lack is an innovation chain
that connects universities, research institutions, industry and investors into
a coherent system that converts ideas into prototypes and then scales those
prototypes into viable products.
A deeper challenge lies in the mindset
that often prefers incremental improvement over bold breakthroughs. Too many
Indian products are engineered as low-cost adaptations of global designs. This
approach creates competence but not leadership. India’s real opportunity lies
in creating solutions that address global needs in new ways. Our scale,
demographic strength and wide diversity of use cases provide an unparalleled
test bed. We must use it to nurture high-risk, original innovation rather than
modest optimisation.
The essential principle
emerges clearly. Nations that lead in semiconductors or artificial intelligence
succeeded because design, R&D, IP creation and manufacturing functioned as
a single reinforcing cycle. India’s manufacturing push must now be matched by
an equally strong deep tech and chip design ecosystem. The next leap involves
more than making chips or deploying AI. It lies in imagining, owning and
exporting the technologies that the world will require next; the
government must contribute not only through major investments but also by
sharing risks with
developers and tweaking fresh policy initiatives. When India closes this gap
between production and invention, it will cease to be only a workshop for
global needs and will become a workshop of global imagination.
...
References:
https://anindecisiveindian.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-indian-railways-fantasy-between.html
https://mindmatters.ai/2021/01/will-mediocrity-triumph-the-fallacy-that-will-not-die/
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