Bharat Innovates 2026: A Blueprint for a Resilient, Inclusive, & Globally Competitive Future

India stands at a defining moment in its development journey — one where innovation is no longer merely an aspiration, but a fundamental driver of economic growth, global competitiveness, and societal transformation. As the world navigates rapid technological disruption, climate imperatives, and evolving supply chains, India is emerging not just as a participant in these changes, but as a leader shaping the future. The narrative has moved beyond “Make in India” to embrace a more ambitious vision: “Create in India, Innovate for the World.”

Through its growing innovation ecosystem, India is positioning itself as a global hub for breakthrough ideas, advanced technologies, and scalable solutions that address challenges far beyond its borders.

A Global Platform for Collaboration

Reflecting this transformation, the Government of India launched ‘Bharat Innovates 2026’ during the India–France Year of Innovation. The landmark initiative aims to accelerate India’s deep-tech ecosystem and strengthen its position as a global innovation powerhouse. Bringing together startups, investors, corporations, and academic institutions worldwide, the programme is a strategic commitment to foster breakthrough technologies, nurture entrepreneurial talent, and develop scalable solutions with global relevance. By empowering innovators, researchers, and industry leaders, Bharat Innovates 2026 seeks to position India not just as a major technology market, but as a leading source of innovation that tackles critical challenges and creates lasting worldwide impact.

Bharat Innovates, for global stakeholders, represents an opportunity to engage with India’s dynamic innovation ecosystem. For Indian startups and researchers, it provides a gateway to international markets, capital, and expertise. In essence, it is a bridge—connecting ideas with opportunity, and ambition with execution.

The maiden edition, Bharat Innovates 2026, takes India’s top 120 DeepTech startups to France to catalyse pilots, co-development, investments, research partnerships, manufacturing and market access. This scale is complemented by a robust talent base—over 1.5 million engineers graduating annually—and growing strengths in frontier sectors such as AI, biotechnology, semiconductors, and clean energy.

The programme has drawn 180 registrations from 15 countries, including 55+ CXO-level participants from 10 countries and 45 investors from 10 countries.

Notably, India’s participation — 24 registrations within this international cohort —demonstrates the confidence and engagement of domestic companies and institutions in driving innovation worldwide.

At the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), we are proud to partner in this transformative journey. CII has consistently worked to foster collaboration between government, academia, and enterprise, creating a strong ecosystem that drives innovation and sustainable growth. In Bharat Innovates 2026, this collaborative philosophy finds one of its most ambitious expressions yet, with a sharper focus on global integration. Through partnerships with leading international institutions, multinational corporations, and innovation hubs, CII aims to position India at the forefront of worldwide innovation.

India’s Innovation Surge

India today stands among the world’s largest innovation ecosystems, with over 200,000 recognized startups and more than 120 unicorns. What is equally noteworthy is the deep linkage between this growth and India’s education ecosystem, with many founders and leadership teams of these unicorns emerging from premier institutions such as the IITs and IISc. This strong academic foundation has enabled India to build expanding capabilities in frontier areas such as AI, quantum technologies, space, and advanced materials, positioning the country as a source of deployable, cost-effective solutions for global markets.

Platforms like Bharat Innovates further reinforce this momentum by showcasing innovation across 13 critical technology domains, including healthcare, energy, advanced computing, mobility, and climate solutions. With projections suggesting that India’s startup ecosystem could reach a valuation of over $1.5 trillion by 2030 and impact billions of lives, the role of industry leadership will be pivotal in guiding this growth.

Over the last decade, India has steadily built a formidable innovation ecosystem rooted in higher education, research labs, and startup communities. Strategic investments in research infrastructure, incubation centres, and entrepreneurship have created a strong pipeline of ideas and enterprises. Today, India is home to one of the world’s largest startup ecosystems. Several factors make this significant.

Global Innovation Leadership

Reflecting on India’s innovation journey it is evident that our model is gaining increasing relevance on the global stage. Whether in digital payments, vaccine development, or renewable energy deployment, India has consistently demonstrated an ability to deliver solutions at an unprecedented scale, with remarkable speed, and at a cost that ensures broad accessibility.

Take digital public infrastructure, for instance. India has emerged as a clear global leader, with UPI today processing over 18 billion transactions every month. This is not merely a technological achievement—it represents a paradigm shift in how efficient, and real-time financial systems can be built to serve large populations.

Similarly, in healthcare, India accounts for nearly 60% of global vaccine production and has supplied vaccines to more than 100 countries. This underscores not only our manufacturing capabilities but also our commitment to global public good.

These examples highlight a broader theme—India’s ability to combine innovation with scale and inclusivity. It is this distinct approach that positions India as a credible and trusted partner in addressing global challenges through innovation-led solutions.

From Frugal Ingenuity to a Global Innovation Powerhouse

India’s innovation journey has evolved from grassroots “jugaad” to a structured, scale-driven ecosystem powered by policy, capital, and talent. With over 2 lakh Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT)-recognised startups as of December 2025, India stands firmly as one of the world’s largest startup ecosystems. These startups span fintech, healthtech, agritech, deep tech, and clean energy.

At the same time, smaller cities are steadily contributing to the momentum, with nearly 50% of startups emerging from Tier II and Tier III cities — reflecting the democratisation of entrepreneurship.

Digital Public Infrastructure: UPI and Aadhaar

The success of platforms like the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Aadhaar-based digital identity systems shows how India has pioneered Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) — an innovation model now being adopted globally. UPI has now become the world’s largest real-time payment system, accounting for around 49% of global real-time digital payment transactions and processes over 20 billion transactions monthly, serving more than 500 million users and 65 million merchants. 

Manufacturing’s Next Leap: Smart, Green, and Design-Led

India’s manufacturing sector is shifting from low-cost production to smart manufacturing, design-driven value, sustainable practices, and advanced technologies. Initiatives supporting electronics, semiconductors, electric mobility, green hydrogen, and defence manufacturing are helping build capabilities that can position India as a globally competitive innovation hub.

Green Innovation: India is innovating for sustainability, and the low-carbon transition offers huge potential. While the country ranks third globally in Renewable Energy Installed Capacity, India’s installed power capacity reached 520.51 GW as of January 2026.

Additionally, an investment of Rs 1.85 lakh crore enabled the electrification of 18,374 villages and the connection of 2.86 crore households

In parallel, sectors such as electric mobility, green hydrogen, and circular economy solutions are emerging as key innovation frontiers.

Policy & Partnerships

India’s innovation progress has been significantly propelled by forward-looking policy frameworks such as Startup India, the Atal Innovation Mission, and the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, which have created a supportive ecosystem for entrepreneurship and industrial growth.

From Classrooms to Creation: Building Innovation Engine

Over the years, India’s innovation ecosystem has evolved into a strong enabling engine, built on sustained national focus and collaborative effort. Initiatives such as over 10,000 ATAL Tinkering Labs and School Innovation Councils are nurturing curiosity and creative problem-solving from an early age, ensuring that innovation becomes a natural instinct for our youth. As students move into higher education, this foundation is further strengthened through a deeper emphasis on research, entrepreneurship, and industry alignment.

India has moved from planning to action on innovation and targeted programmes are driving real results. The $10 billion Research, Development and Innovation Scheme help de-risk private R&D, while One Nation One Subscription gives millions of students access to global research.

India is ranked 3rd globally in AI competitiveness as per Stanford University’s 2025 Global AI Vibrancy Tool.

However, sustaining this momentum will require continued focus and collaboration.

India must strengthen investments in research and development, accelerate industry-academia partnerships, support commercialization of innovation, and expand access to risk capital for deep-tech enterprises. Equally critical will be investments in skilling and future-ready talent, particularly in emerging technologies.

Industry will play a pivotal role in this transition. Indian enterprises must move beyond technology adoption toward technology creation. Building globally competitive brands, intellectual property, and innovation-led business models will define the next phase of India’s industrial growth.

Today, as we look ahead, the challenge is not merely to sustain growth, but to redefine it—to make it more inclusive, innovation-driven, and globally integrated. Bharat Innovates 2026 is a step in that direction which reflects our collective ambition to position India as a global hub for innovation, where ideas are nurtured, technologies are commercialised, and solutions are scaled for global impact.