Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi
New Delhi, Jul 19: India must build globally competitive companies based on science and intellectual property developed within its own universities rather than relying on technologies created elsewhere, BITS Group Vice Chancellor Ramgopal Rao has said.
In an interview, the noted academician said India possesses two major advantages—an abundant talent pool and large-scale real-world challenges—which can serve as the foundation for globally significant deep technology companies.
"We must build companies around science and intellectual property created in our own universities. India has two enormous advantages: talent and problems at scale. Both can become the basis for globally important companies," Rao said.
He stressed the need for indigenous innovation in sectors including semiconductors, healthcare, agriculture, space, energy, water, advanced materials, artificial intelligence, defence and manufacturing.
"A technology that succeeds under Indian conditions can often succeed anywhere in the world. The difficulty is that deep technology does not run on normal startup timelines," he said.
Rao explained that while software products can be developed or upgraded within weeks, technologies such as medical devices, semiconductors and advanced materials require years of research, repeated testing, certification and significant investment before reaching the market.
"The weak link is often not the idea or even the prototype. It is the long middle between a laboratory result and a dependable product. Industry and government must be willing to provide test beds and become early customers. For a deep technology startup, the first serious customer is often more valuable than the first investor," he said.
Rao noted that the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, emerged as the leading undergraduate institution represented in the Avendus Wealth-Hurun India U30 List 2026, with 11 alumni founders featured this year.
A former Director of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, Rao said BITS-Pilani has nurtured an entrepreneurial culture over several decades, enabling young innovators to build successful ventures before turning 30.
He said the institute offers students academic flexibility and encourages them to pursue entrepreneurial ideas beyond the classroom through initiatives such as the New Venture Creation course.
According to Rao, the programme focuses on practical entrepreneurship by guiding students through idea validation, customer interaction, market analysis, technology assessment, development of a minimum viable product, and an understanding of finance, legal compliance and fundraising, with each team mentored by an experienced entrepreneur.
Rao emphasised that universities must create a complete innovation pipeline from research to commercial impact.
"A research paper creates knowledge. A patent gives ownership over that knowledge. It is only when the knowledge becomes a useful product or process that it begins to create wealth for society," he said.
He said wealth should be measured not only in startup valuations but also in terms of new industries, skilled employment, manufacturing capacity, exports, strategic self-reliance and solutions to large-scale societal challenges.
Rao also highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary education, saying entrepreneurship thrives when students from different academic backgrounds collaborate.
He said BITS Pilani allows students to pursue diverse academic combinations, including a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science alongside a Master of Science in Chemistry within five years.
"Many important innovations today lie at the intersection of disciplines," he said, adding that fields such as drug discovery require expertise in biology, chemistry and computing, while climate technology depends on engineering, economics and public policy.
He said exposure to multiple disciplines enables students to identify opportunities that may be overlooked through conventional single-discipline education.