Let markets filter deeptech champions: Traders inform govt at Semicon India

India ought to cease making an attempt to “decide winners” in deeptech and as a substitute select a handful of nationwide priorities—then measure outcomes and reward outcomes, imagine buyers.

The feedback got here at Semicon India 2025, the place consultants and main buyers shared their inputs on accelerating the nation’s advanced-manufacturing push. They argued that the federal government’s proposed $12 billion Analysis Growth and Innovation (RDI) Fund will ship extra if it backs objectives, not particular applied sciences.

Sriram Viswanathan, Founding Managing Accomplice at Celesta Capital, stated the state’s position is to set course and design incentives, not dictate technical selections. “The federal government just isn’t a picker of winners and losers… let the trade do it,” he stated, including that “what you measure improves” and urging officers to trace the appropriate metrics and tie assist to them.

Viswanathan warned towards “peanut-butter” policymaking that spreads capital thinly throughout dozens of missions. The repair, he stated, is ruthless focus: “Choose 5” areas and “put your muscle behind it,” as a result of management in 50 fields is inconceivable, he famous.

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Premji Make investments’s TK Kurien pointed to China’s mannequin: Permit “excessive competitors on the backside,” then again the few corporations that emerge as world-class—and assist them lock in supply-chain depth. The lesson for India, he stated, is to let markets filter contenders and solely then apply state heft.

To make the Rs 1-lakh-crore plan chew, the panel urged clear targets and quick execution, coupled with collaboration between buyers, corporates, and the state. Viswanathan stated the India Deep Tech Funding Alliance (IDTA) goals to channel suggestions to the federal government in order that incentives take away bottlenecks and deploy capital with pace.

Celesta and 7 different VC/PE corporations not too long ago fashioned IDTA. Past committing $1 billion+ over the subsequent decade, the alliance explicitly says it would present members “a unified channel for engagement with authorities entities overseeing the RDI Scheme,” align with official objectives/tips, and coordinate co-investments and sector roundtables.