India Must Invest in Deep Tech, Not Rely on Global Trends, Says Neelkanth Mishra

India must channel investment into deep technology rather than riding the coattails of global trends if it wants to build durable economic strength — that was the blunt message from Neelkanth Mishra, chief economist at Axis Bank and one of India's most closely followed macro strategists, in remarks reported by Business Standard.

Mishra's argument centres on a structural vulnerability: India's startup boom has produced a generation of consumer and services platforms, but the country remains reliant on imported chips, foreign cloud infrastructure, and research originating abroad. Without indigenous capability in frontier areas — semiconductors, advanced materials, quantum computing, and biotech — India risks being a sophisticated consumer of technology built elsewhere, rather than a creator of it.

His comments align with a broader debate playing out in Indian policy and investment circles. The government has made moves toward deep tech through the Semicon India programme and various PLI schemes, but private venture capital has remained concentrated in fintech, edtech, and e-commerce — sectors with faster, more legible returns. Mishra's intervention is a push for patient, risk-tolerant capital to flow toward harder, longer-horizon bets.

The stakes are significant. As the US and China erect barriers around advanced technology, countries without sovereign capability in deep tech face growing geopolitical exposure. For India, which has an abundance of engineering talent but a relatively shallow base in applied R&D, the window to invest in that foundation is narrowing. Mishra's message is essentially a call to act before that window closes.