DeepTech is going to have a massive transformational impact

The second edition of the DQDeepTech 2021 was held recently. Pradeep Gupta, Chairman, Cybermedia delivered the welcome address. Deeptech is going to have a massive transformational impact. Everybody is watching this transformation very closely. It can change the future of business in this country.

This year, we created a think tank of 15-20 people, chaired by Manoj Kohli, Country Head, Softbank India, and co-chaired by Abhay Karandikar, Director, IIT Kanpur. We captured the various thoughts emerging from the deliberations. That helped us mould the agenda for this program. We prepared a position paper. We will take inputs from this conference and put them all together in a white paper. We hope this paper can transform the deep tech ecosystem in India. We will also share this paper with industry associations and investors.

There is disruption going on. There was a mindset block that has been removed by the pandemic. Deep tech will have a similar impact going forward. We find that complete transformation has taken place. The entire assessment of the risk for any passenger is being handled by AI at Air Suvidha. Travel experience has changed. We are finding there is more of AI and ML, and lot of information about you are going to be doing. We are seeing more of drones and robots. They are used in agriculture, delivery systems, entertainment, etc. Robotics are now found in manufacturing. Assembly lines today are heavily automated. There are requirements of contactless manufacturing. In blockchain, the entire financial industry has been transformed. The trust behind each process is built by blockchain. AR/VR is getting used in training. It is being used in media to enhance user experience. We will see a different world altogether in 10-15 years.

It is very necessary for India to build a complete ecosystem so we can take global leadership. We grew the Indian software industry to great heights on the strength of the PC. In mobility, we have seen how India is using them differently. However, we do not have technology leadership. We will have many opportunities coming up in the future. We did a healthcare conference. The doctors and nursing care has Indians. India should be driving the technology, rather than be service providers. The Indian vaccines are being used globally. We need to create a healthcare ecosystem. China has made serious investments, as has the EU. USA has always used technology as an important tool for transformation. It is time for India to emerge. We need the will and the way, and an ecosystem. We also need a policy where stakeholders can come together. We need to have startups that can take up deep tech challenges, backed by investors. We should become the central point for technology, and products and services. We hope that the conference can throw up the right guidelines needed for going forward.