NITI Aayog lays out roadmap to boost India's innovation ecosystem

NITI Aayog, in its latest report, “Pathways to Progress: Analysis and Insights into India’s Innovation Story”, has identified systemic challenges and laid out a forward-looking roadmap that includes scaling successful models, fostering deep technology innovation, strengthening knowledge creation, enhancing global integration, and building innovation capacity across states. It captures India’s journey in science, technology, and innovation, providing a detailed assessment of the country’s achievements, challenges, and opportunities to strengthen its position as a global innovation hub.

Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Science & Technology, says innovation in India is pervasive and not confined to frontier technologies alone. He highlights the government’s initiatives to advance research, promote technology development, and facilitate the commercialisation of innovations across all sectors, and underscores the importance of inclusive and context-driven innovation that addresses real-world challenges, while strengthening India’s overall capacity to compete globally and drive sustainable, equitable growth.

Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Education and Chief Guest, underscored India’s progress in building a robust innovation ecosystem and stressed the importance of positioning Bharat as a global brand of excellence in knowledge, science, and technology. He called for harnessing India’s youth, talent, and institutional strengths to drive innovation that is both scalable and inclusive.

Deepak Bagla, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission, talked about the transformative role of AIM in nurturing entrepreneurial talent, fostering innovation at scale, and creating a vibrant startup culture across the country.

On September 15, the government think tank released a report, ‘AI for Viksit Bharat’, highlighting that AI adoption is expected to add over $1–1.4 trillion to India’s GDP by 2035, helping bridge the gap to achieve the $8.3 trillion GDP target. Without AI, the GDP growth rate is expected to be just 5.7%, when for Viksit Bharat, the rate must be 8% or more.

The report identified three levers in this process. AI adoption distributed distinctly across industries is expected to bridge a third of the trillion-dollar gap. “Higher output, lower costs of goods and services, and improved access for underserved markets. These effects are expected to materialise across both domestic consumption and export markets,” the report stated.

Further, the Generative AI implementation in R&D is set to contribute to 20–30% of the enhanced GDP, as this is set to accelerate innovation, paving the way for faster commercialisation of the research, thus strengthening competitiveness. Meanwhile, the third lever will be the innovation in technology services that will add 15-20% to the trillion-dollar GDP gap, as this will lead to future-proofed jobs and build higher-value business models.