India must pivot towards deeptech research and stronger industry-academia collaboration to improve the global impact of its scientific output, even as it continues to rank among the top producers of research papers, Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice president at Nasscom, told Fe in an interaction.
India currently ranks third globally in research output but trails on citations and overall influence, highlighting a structural imbalance. Gupta described this as part of an evolution in the research ecosystem.
“Historically, ecosystems often prioritise volume and inclusivity in the early stages… We are now entering a secondary phase where the focus is pivoting from output quantity to outcome quality and global IP creation,” she said.
Access to advanced laboratories
She added that accelerating this shift would require access to advanced laboratories and deeper collaboration between academia and industry to support high-precision frontier research. Fields such as quantum computing, generative AI and semiconductor design tend to attract higher global attention and citation rates, she said.
Gupta said the government’s India AI Mission is helping address infrastructure gaps by enabling access to compute. “By onboarding over 10,000 GPUs and making them available to researchers and startups at subsidised rates, the government is removing the primary barrier to foundational research,” she said, adding that platforms such as AIKosh could help India move from being a consumer to a creator of AI knowledge.
Expanding policy support
Policy support is also expanding. The recently announced Rs 1 lakh crore research, development and innovation scheme, operationalised through the Anusandhan National Research Foundation, aims to strengthen the research base. However, Gupta said the challenge lies less in funding and more in redesigning the research architecture. This includes building globally comparable R&D data systems, improving science-to-market pathways, enabling flexible regulation and attracting long-term private capital.
On concerns around AI-led job losses, Gupta said the technology would reshape rather than shrink employment. India’s tech workforce of around 6 million is expected to remain a net job generator, with roles evolving alongside AI adoption. “We will move from traditional labour arbitrage to intelligence arbitrage,” she said.
She pointed to rising investments in skilling, with over 100 million learning hours recorded by the top five IT companies in FY25 and more than 2 million professionals trained in AI. New roles such as AI product owners and model governance specialists are emerging, while closer industry-academia ties are being seen as critical to aligning curricula with evolving skill needs.