Net Zero transition brings opportunity to build, not just import, technology

There is a persistent weakness in India’s technological ambitions: The difficulty of taking research from the laboratory to industrial deployment. Why does a country with excellent scientific institutions and a strong industrial base struggle to turn its intellectual capital into technologies of its own? Atmanirbhar Bharat cannot just mean manufacturing equipment in India while importing the underlying process know-how, critical materials, catalysts, membranes, engineering designs and intellectual property. Such manufacturing creates jobs and economic value, but it does not necessarily deliver technological independence.

True atmanirbharta must mean progressively moving from know-how — from importing technologies — to know-why in India (generating IPRs — intellectual property rights), show-how in India (design thinking capabilities), develop how in India (integration of many sub systems) and then improve in India (more IPRs for technology protection) — in addition to Make in India. Why have we struggled to achieve this? After nearly five decades spent first in a national research institution, then in large public- and private-sector industries, and now in academia, I see five recurring reasons.

One, technology development takes time. In sectors such as energy, steel, cement, chemicals and fertilisers, laboratory discoveries must progress through pilot plants to industrial demonstration. Laboratories have to become pilot plants. Pilot plants must become demonstration plants. Equipment fails, materials behave differently at scale, and processes must become safe, reliable and cost-competitive. This requires patient capital and a willingness to accept failure.

Two, industry understandably wants proven technology. Companies cannot risk production or commit unlimited resources to untested ideas. This creates a paradox: If everyone wants proven technology, who will prove a new Indian technology for the first time? The answer lies in sharing development risks rather than leaving industry or academia to shoulder them alone.

Three, technology development is a complex process, commonly described through nine technology readiness levels, or TRLs. A scientific idea begins at lower levels and progresses through laboratory validation, pilot demonstration and finally commercial deployment. Much of Indian academia operates effectively up to roughly TRL 3 or 4. Industry, understandably, prefers to enter around TRL 7 or later. What happens in the interregnum? Too often, very little. Efforts to plug the gap between laboratory validation and industrial demonstration remain inadequately funded. The development of coal-gasification technology suited to India’s high-ash coal, for instance, requires a completely different scale of resources, engineering and institutional commitment needed to cross it beyond the successful demonstration scale at a R&D pilot plant.

Four, collaboration hasn’t been sufficient. Scientists, engineers, equipment manufacturers, plant operators and policymakers must work together throughout technology development, not merely meet periodically as consortium partners. Academia must understand industrial problems; industry must recognise what research can contribute. Universities, too, must break disciplinary silos.

Five, nobody owns this journey. Government funds research, academia generates knowledge and industry commercialises technology. But who takes responsibility for carrying promising ideas through demonstration? India needs mechanisms that bring all three together from the outset, with shared responsibilities and financial contributions that evolve as technologies mature. Government must shoulder a greater share of early-stage risk, while industry progressively increases its participation as technical uncertainty falls. Deep-technology incubators and demonstration centres can help bridge the gap.

The transition to Net Zero emissions offers India an extraordinary opportunity. Green hydrogen, carbon capture and utilisation, energy storage, sustainable fuels, new materials and circular manufacturing are not merely environmental necessities. They represent perhaps the largest industrial technology transition since the Industrial Revolution, which will reshape steel, cement, chemicals, fertilisers, transport and power over the coming decades. We should use this transition to create Indian technology. Perhaps India has the highest incentive to develop new technologies as we grow our economy fourfold and build new assets, not as a repeat of what was built earlier on imported technologies. India can build new fertiliser plants, cement plants, steel plants and pharmaceutical plants using entirely new processes and technologies. India must not settle for becoming merely a large market for technologies developed elsewhere. Industry must challenge academia with its most difficult problems, while research institutions must accept greater responsibility for taking their discoveries towards deployment.

AI can accelerate materials discovery, process modelling and equipment design. But it cannot eliminate the need to demonstrate and operate real industrial hardware. We should use this transition to create Indian technology.

India’s atomic energy programme offers important lessons. Faced with restrictions on access to advanced technologies, the country developed capabilities of its own. In hindsight, perhaps technology denial brought out the best in us. Something else was equally important: Scientific leadership. Our leaders created a sense of national mission, freedom for scientists and engineers, trust in young people and acceptance of failure as part of technological progress.

That spirit needs to be renewed, not by isolating India from global technology, but by building domestic capabilities alongside it. India has the scientists, industries, entrepreneurs, capital and the target market. It lacks a reliable bridge between scientific discovery and industrial application. Deep-tech incubators and demonstration centres bridge the gap between academia and industry.

Atmanirbhar Bharat must be measured not just by how much equipment India manufactures, but by how much technology it develops, owns, improves and confidently deploys. Building that bridge holds the key to the ambition of becoming Viksit Bharat.