Harnessing Science-Led Entrepreneurship for Global Innovation, ET Government

India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) has been foundational: Aadhaar for identity, UPI for payments, ONDC for commerce, and IndiaAI for ethical artificial intelligence.We are living in a decisive decade. The planet is heating, misinformation is metastasising, and inequality is widening. These crises are not waiting for consensus papers or citations. They need action: fast, bold, and grounded in science. But science alone won’t save us. Innovation will. And entrepreneurship is how we scale it.

This is not a rallying cry for startups for their own sake. It’s a call to embrace entrepreneurship as the engine that carries science from a lab bench to villages, from insight to impact. In a world overrun with complex, cross-border challenges, the gap between knowledge and implementation is no longer a luxury, it’s a clear and present danger. If we cannot bridge it, we stall, humanity and progress both come to a grinding halt .

When Visionaries Converge
That urgency was front and centre at the recent International Conference of Young Scientists at IIT Hyderabad, one of the largest and most diverse global convenings of early-career researchers in Telangana. In a powerful address, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated the 15th anniversary of the Global Young Academy (GYA), calling for deeper integration of research, innovation, and entrepreneurship to shape India’s future. Alongside him, Prof. Budaraju Srinivasa Murty, director IIT Hyderabad, a pioneering metallurgist and transformative leader, embodied the aspirations of a new generation. This historic gathering, co-hosted by IIT Hyderabad, the Government of Telangana, the Indian National Science Academy, and GYA, wasn’t just a celebration of science, it was a clarion call to turn scientific discovery into a scalable global good.

From Bengaluru to the World: India’s Innovation Blueprint
India’s transition from a technology back-office to a front-runner in global innovation has taken decades, but it’s now undeniable. No longer just the site of outsourced code, India is emerging as a laboratory for globally relevant, locally rooted innovation built for scale.

Take InMobi, for instance. Born in Bengaluru, it was India’s first unicorn. But its real breakthrough came recently with Glance, a lock-screen platform now reaching hundreds of millions, and Glance AI, which is setting a new standard for ethical, frictionless AI-powered commerce. These platforms don’t just transact. They understand people. They don’t just build algorithms. They build trust and global AI use cases.

This isn’t just one company’s success. It’s India’s blueprint. Homegrown companies are shaping global tech norms and proving that innovation in the Global South isn’t about catching up, it’s about leading differently. The world isn’t just watching India anymore. It’s learning from it.

The Global South Rises — Innovation Everywhere
The Global South is no longer peripheral to innovation; it’s becoming central. Across India, Nigeria, Brazil, and Southeast Asia, high-impact entrepreneurship is rising, not in glossy towers, but in Tier II cities and rural labs. India alone registered over 1,200 new tech startups in 2023, with cities like Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar, and Jaipur seeing a 40% spike in registrations.

This is the democratisation of innovation and it’s policy-enabled. India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) has been foundational: Aadhaar for identity, UPI for payments, ONDC for commerce, and IndiaAI for ethical artificial intelligence. When national platforms meet progressive state-level policy, like Telangana’s pioneering work with T-Hub, WE Hub, and AI governance, the result is exponential impact.

Young Scientists, Big Stakes
Today’s early-career scientists are not waiting to be told they matter. They are building what matters.

This new generation defies the old dichotomies between research and risk-taking, between lab work and field impact. These are scientists who code, collaborate, and crowdfund. They are comfortable navigating both peer review and venture capital. And they are proving that knowledge and action are not opposites, they are companions.

But their path isn’t easy. As they disrupt and innovate, many operate in under-resourced ecosystems, lacking mentorship, policy support, or access to catalytic capital. That’s why platforms like the Global Young Academy matter: not just to spotlight their work, but to scaffold it. With global networks, interdisciplinary collaborations, and strategic partnerships like the US–India NIHIT initiative, these efforts help turn potential into performance.

Innovation Needs New Muscles
To truly innovate, scientists need more than technical expertise. They need the ability to communicate clearly, collaborate across silos, and — crucially — to take risks. They must be willing to fail forward, to prototype, iterate, and pivot. These are the muscles that entrepreneurship strengthens.

Our institutions must now follow suit. Universities should stop treating startups as side projects. Risk-taking must be recognized as intellectual courage, not just commercial appetite. And we must train scientists not just to publish, but to translate — from research to relevance, from theory to tools.

Policy as Enabler, Not Gatekeeper
When governments take innovation seriously, they don’t just fund research, they build ecosystems. Rwanda’s use of drones in healthcare, Estonia’s e-governance revolution, and India’s DPI success all show what happens when public architecture meets private ingenuity.

India offers a living case study. From digital IDs to frictionless payment systems, it has created the infrastructure for scale, a blueprint now being studied and replicated globally. And when states like Telangana pair this with agile execution, world-class incubators, and a pro-innovation mindset, entire regions are transformed into innovation hubs.

The Time to Build is Now
Entrepreneurship is the most powerful form of activism today. Every prototype, every platform, every product built for good, these are acts of defiance against despair. They say: we will not wait for the future. We will build it.

But to build bravely, young scientists must be backed boldly, with capital, with policy, with belief. When they win, we all win: economies grow, trust in science deepens, and lives are changed.

The bridge between discovery and dignity is innovation. And the next generation is already crossing it. Our job is to ensure they don’t walk alone.

• Published On Jun 13, 2025 at 08:55 AM IST

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