Principal Scientific Advisor Ajay Kumar Sood on Friday underscored the significance of the ‘Bharat Innovates 2026’ initiative presented by the Ministry of Education, describing it as a platform designed to bridge the gap between Indian innovation and the global ecosystem.
The leader stated that multiple Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) are expected to be signed between Indian startups and academic institutions.
Speaking toon the sidelines of the event, Sood emphasised that the ‘initiative Innovates showcases India’s innovation potential to the global scene,’ and highlighted that these innovations, selected from a vast pool of research from IITs, IISc, and various startups, mark the beginning of a sustained effort to integrate Indian ingenuity into the world market.
“Bharat Innovates really brings together our inventors, our academic institutes, our venture people from outside the world, outside India, and all the corporates and so on. So that we see how innovation can make a difference in really taking science and technology benefits to society. So that’s the goal of Bharat Innovates, where we are showcasing almost more than 150 technologies, and this is what is a beginning, “he stated.
On the potential for long-term collaboration, Sood confirmed that the initiative goes beyond a one-time event, noting that multiple Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) are expected to be signed between Indian startups, academic institutions, and other industry players.
“So there will be many MOUs signed between our startups and investors outside, our IITs and IISc with the corresponding universities and also our other industry players who are going to be signing up. There will be a business bridge, an innovation business bridge and an innovation other bridge, which will really look at how the startups are enabled. It’s all a wholesome game, and unless you take care of all of them, it will not work,” he explained.
Sood described this as an ongoing process and a foundational step toward establishing a robust trend of connecting global investors with India’s domestic innovation ecosystem.
Reflecting on the evolution of such platforms, the Principal Scientific Advisor noted that while previous events were often restricted to a smaller scale within select institutes, this initiative represents a major shift toward a more organised, large-scale engagement.
“Earlier events were only within IITs and a few NITs. This is the first time that our inventors, our innovators, are going outside in an organised manner in such large numbers. That too in deep tech startups in 13 areas. So we also have the Viva Tech happening next week, and after that, there are also some of these events going on. So this is something, a very, I would say, a coherent effort which is happening for the first time,” Sood added.
Looking ahead, Sood highlighted the future of the platform, citing the strength of India’s growing startup ecosystem.
He said, “The government has brought out policies, as you know, we have RDI fund for deep tech R&D in the private sector, and we have DPIIT Rs 10,000 crore fund of funds also for deep tech. So this is something very new, something very fundamentally strong, an incentive for the deep tech startups to be encouraged. So I think this will accelerate and catalyse things.”