On the second day, the 17th edition of TechSparks 2026 in Bengaluru moved between policy and product, with conversations on governance, the city’s infrastructure future, global-first startups, and India’s deeptech opportunity.
YourStory’s flagship startup-tech summit brought together founders, investors, policymakers, and technologists to explore how India can build for itself and for the world.
The day’s headline conversation featured Krishna Byre Gowda, Minister for Greater Bengaluru Development, Government of Karnataka, in a fireside chat with Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO, YourStory and The Bharat Project. Drawing on his time in the state’s Land Revenue Department, Gowda said technology in governance can minimise corruption and help bridge the trust gap between citizens and the government.
“The more technology we adopt in governance, the better will be our delivery of services to people, and lower will be the levels of corruption,” he said.
He also cautioned that technology alone cannot fix systemic problems without a shift in civic behaviour. Out of an estimated 35 lakh to 50 lakh properties in Bengaluru, he noted, only 23 lakh have registered khatas and just 18 lakh pay property taxes.
The minister also laid out an ambitious plan for the city’s growth. The state government aims to expand Bengaluru’s metro network from 96 km to 170 km over the next 18 months, and hopes to reach 400 km by 2037, the year the city turns 500. Planning is already underway for a 2,000 sq km area around Bengaluru, well beyond the 750 sq km covered by the Greater Bengaluru Authority.
“Hopefully, in the next six months, we can show demonstrable results in making Bengaluru relatively a cleaner city,” Gowda said.
Moving to global ambitions, Manish Maheshwari, Managing Director, Stripe India, said AI is making it faster and cheaper to build world-facing companies from India, giving rise to what he called the “minimum viable company.” According to him, Indian founders can now go global from day one.
He pointed to Emergent hitting $100 million in ARR in eight months, and Stripe data showing 76% of customers prefer paying in their own currency. Maheshwari also confirmed Stripe’s agreement to acquire OpenRouter, which routes AI queries to the most suitable model, a bet on helping companies control fast-rising AI costs.
“In some of the new-age companies, the amount of money people are spending on tokens is more than what they are spending on salaries,” he said.
Deeptech took centre stage in a panel featuring Vishesh Rajaram of Speciale Invest, Mayuresh Raut of Seafund, Anirudh Singh of Avatar Venture Partners, and Abhishek Srivastava of Kae Capital. The investors said deeptech is giving rise to new kinds of founders, driven by India’s talent advantage and the geopolitical push for self-reliance in critical technologies.
Raut said there is still an eight-to-10-year window of opportunity, while Rajaram noted that “nerve and patience” set apart the founders who endure.
Day 3 of TechSparks 2026 will continue to unpack how India can build, own, and scale the technologies of the new tech order. The agenda features conversations on rethinking engineering education with Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala, building global companies from day one with Omio’s Naren Shaam, AI sovereignty and the next 500 million users, climate innovation in energy, water, and clean air, and India’s $100 billion AI opportunity, before the summit closes with a fireside chat with Zakir Khan.