India possesses the talent to build any technology in the world, according to Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Institute Professor at IIT Madras and Chairman of IIIT Hyderabad and the ITEL Foundation. He stressed that the nation must now back its young entrepreneurs to achieve complete technological self-reliance.
While established domestic industry traditionally remains risk-averse, young startup founders are stepping up as genuine risk-takers capable of driving national transformation, he said while speaking at a fireside chat with Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO, YourStory and The Bharat Project at TechSparks 2026, YourStory’s annual summit.
He, however, believes that converting this vast potential into global leadership requires fixing a structural flaw in technical education while redirecting innovation towards practical, local challenges.
Highlighting a glaring paradox in the national ecosystem, Jhunjhunwala noted that while Indian engineers routinely develop sophisticated software and technologies, the country continues to import almost every physical product.
“In the last 20 years or so, you're finding that in India, we can pretty much develop all technologies, and yet we import pretty much every product,” observed Prof. Jhunjhunwala, a recipient of the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award in India.
A primary bottleneck is that engineering colleges prioritising examination preparation over practical product development. Reflecting on his own academic journey, Jhunjhunwala emphasised that higher education should teach students how to learn continuously throughout their lives. Much of real learning takes place through peer interaction outside traditional classrooms, yet university curricula remain overburdened with theoretical coursework.
To foster genuine creativity, Jhunjhunwala advocated discarding half of the current curriculum to make room for hands-on creation. He said young people across institutions in Tier II, III, and IV cities possess immense talent and determination, and are willing to work 16 hours a day when given the opportunity.
“What we do not teach in engineering colleges... where we are taught to build. Build anything. And I believe this is the weakest link of Indian engineering education,” he explained.
Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Institute Professor at IIT Madras and Chairman of IIIT Hyderabad and the ITEL Foundation, and Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO, YourStory and The Bharat Project at TechSparks 2026.
Civic innovation
This imperative to build locally is particularly urgent in the rapidly-evolving artificial intelligence (AI) landscape. Instead of chasing multi-trillion parameter cloud models dominated by foreign conglomerates, India must define its own strategy centred on edge computing, which involves processing data directly on local hardware such as smartphones, laptops, or low-power workplace, the professor suggested.
By retraining accessible open-weight models using domestic datasets, Indian enterprises can deploy compact 5-billion to 80-billion parameter models to dramatically boost efficiency in manufacturing and enterprise workflows. To power this decentralised infrastructure, Indian incubators are guiding young founders to design custom low-watt graphics processing units tailored for high-speed computation on small edge devices.
“India’s focus has to be very different. India (should) focus, how much of AI can I run on the edge? How much can I run on my mobile phone? How much can I run on my laptop?” Jhunjhunwala remarked.
Technological advancement must ultimately serve to resolve pressing everyday realities, from severe urban traffic congestion to municipal waste management. Through the Immersive Technology and Entrepreneurship Labs (ITEL), Jhunjhunwala has established consortiums uniting academic scientists and startup founders to tackle complex civic issues.
ITEL is deploying robotics and AI to design clean, high-efficiency urban transit systems capable of moving commuters 15 kilometres in 20 minutes across congested cities like Bengaluru.
Simultaneously, the foundation is supporting dedicated young founders in developing automated waste separation technologies designed to extract economic value from municipal garbage.
By trusting young entrepreneurs to solve local problems and embrace the iterative process of failure and adaptation, India can move from importing foreign solutions to establishing global technological leadership.
“If we solve our day-to-day problem, if we create consortiums of scientists and startups to solve our... impossible problems, we will be the technology leader in the world,” Jhunjhunwala said.