The session, titled ‘Deep Tech Decade: Engineering the Next Revolution’, had a panel consisting of Drs. Nitin Nagarkara, Vice-Chancellor, Medical, SRMIST, Thirumalai Srinivasan, Director, Business & Innovation, SRM, Dinesh Kumar Sundaravelu, CEO, Tamilnadu Research Park Foundation moderated by Kanhanan Surijay, President, Technology Management, Kanhanan Vijay Vijayaraghavan, CTO, The Hindu Group. | Photo credit: Ragu R.
The opening panel of The Hindu Deep Tech Summit 2026, held in association with SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST), set the tone for a day of forward-thinking conversations about technology and its role in shaping India’s future. The meeting titled ‘Deep Tech Decade: Engineering the Next Revolution’ – organized on Monday (April 6, 2025) at Feathers Hotel, A Radha – brought together voices from academia and industry. Moderated by Suresh Vijayaraghavan, Chief Technology Officer, The Hindu Group, the panel featured Nitin Nagarkar, Thirumalai Srinivasan, Dinesh Kumar Sundaravelu and Kannan Vijaya Raghavan.
The panel agreed that India stands at a defining moment. “The time is right for our country to get involved,” said Dr. Nagarkar, vice-chancellor for medical sciences at SRMIST, and described the stage where deep technologies, from artificial intelligence to robotics, will move beyond the labs and touch everyday life.
Impact of deep technologies
For Mr. Srinivasan, director of business and innovation at SRM and Industry, the next decade will be anchored in two sectors: semiconductors and renewable energy. Together, he suggested, they could position India not just as a participant but as a global manufacturing hub.
Others widened the lens. Mr. Sundaravelu, CEO, Tamil Nadu Research Park Foundation, pointed to the rise of multi-stakeholder partnerships where governments, startups and institutions collaborate across geographies, from metros to tier 2 and tier 3 cities, to accelerate innovation.
At the center of the discussion was a single, recurring idea: convergence.
Mr. Raghavan, president of the Technology Management Society, said no discipline can operate in isolation anymore. Breakthroughs, whether in drug discovery or medicine, now lie at the intersection of biology, engineering, computing and clinical sciences, he said. “Individual sciences today cannot create products,” he noted.
Industry and academia
In the context of interdisciplinary convergence and the evolving role of universities, Mr. Srinivasan emphasized the need for academia to embrace failure as part of the process, while industry must step in to drive ideas to real results.
This journey from the laboratory to the market remains one of the biggest challenges. While basic research often begins in universities, translating it into viable products requires funding, incubation and regulatory support. Panelists called for stronger “translational ecosystems” and more flexible, sandbox-style regulations that would allow for faster experimentation. They agreed that the role of government is crucial not only in funding but also in shaping policy and supplying talent. As India transitions from a service-based economy to a product-based economy, the need for a new kind of workforce is becoming increasingly clear.
“Gone are the days when talent alone defined a title,” noted Mr. Srinivasan, pointing to a future where adaptability and skills will matter more than formal qualifications.
As the discussion drew to a close, there was broad agreement on where the biggest disruptions will take place: healthcare, biotech and semiconductors. However, the larger content covered fewer sectors and more systems. The panel suggested that India’s deep tech future will not be built in silos, but through collaboration, convergence and a willingness to rethink how innovation itself is done.
Published – 06 Apr 2026 23:15 IST
