India, April 19 -- Why hasn't India made major strides in the deeptech space yet? The oft-quoted question recently gained steam when the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, pulled up Indian startup founders for wasting their talent, time and capital on delivering groceries or making fancy ice cream brands rather than doing real-world innovation in the realm of deeptech.

While the minister's concerns were genuine, the reality is that India's deeptech sector is plagued with capital constraints and a risk-averse funding ecosystem. According to the Inc42 data, the deeptech sector was the least favoured investor destination in the first three months of 2025.

The sector, which houses robotics, frontier models in AI, semiconductor...