Analysis Of Yojana Magazine: Deep-Tech Startups | Yojana June 2022 Topic wise Gist

Yojana Magazine is a very important and indispensable source for UPSC Civil Services Exam Preparation. Here, we come with ”Analysis Of Yojana Magazine” which covers the monthly Yojana Magazine keeping in mind the demand of UPSC, particularly from the topics of important government schemes.

In ‘‘Analysis Of Yojana Magazine,” we cover each and every topic of the Yojana edition of a particular month and provide an easy-to-understand gist.

This topic-wise analysis is prepared from June 2022 edition of the monthly Yojana Magazine.

 

Introduction

• The startup India Platform which started in 2016, has been instrumental in encouraging startups and integrating them with the corporate and investment community. Over 26 states in India have a startup policy.
• Yet, in India’s population of 130 crores, only the top 25%(affluent and middle class) benefit from the fruits of technological progress.
• This is because most of the high-tech goods and services are designed in the developed world for reach people.
• India is behind developed countries because we lack deep-tech startups.

 

What is Deep-tech Startup?

• Deep-tech startups are those whose business models are based on high-tech innovation in engineering or significant scientific advances.
• The term deep tech is intended to set it aside from its opposite, “shallow tech”. Shallow tech is a relatively simple technological advance moving a business from a non-digital business model to a digital one.
• India had about 2,100 deep-tech startups as of 2020, as per industry body Nasscom.
• Deep tech startups constitute less than one per cent of the number of startups, far below what is a fast growing complex and large economy like India should have.

 

What India is Loosing?

The absence of deep tech startups harms India considerably by weakening her capability to meaningfully address complex socio-economic challenges that afflict our society in multiple sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, transportation, energy, etc.

 

Need For deep tech startups?

• Deep tech startups arise from research-based disruptive innovations from STEM labs of academic/research institutions and solve hard problems and challenges.
• Some examples are Recycling Sewage, affordable solutions for treating diseases, and creating an alternative to Lithium-Ion batteries and a low-cost satellite launching system.
• Few examples – Moderna, SpaceX, Apple, Intel, Microsoft, Tesla, etc.

 

Challenges before deep tech startups

There are three major challenges that a deep tech startup has vis-a-vis other startups(including tech-based startups) face:

• Need longer gestation for development(5-8 years)
• Require different types of inputs_They require more patient capital, specialised talent and expert knowledge in more than one domain.
• Follows a different development path-Breakthrough technology.

 

Conclusion

By linking development grants/seed investment programmes for deep tech startups with a robust customer discovery exercise, we can create in India a significant amount of robust and creative deep tech ecosystem.