Marketing gurus says food applications meet today’s needs and deep technology will define the future.

New Delhi, Apr 10 (PTI) The nation that produced the world’s cheapest data and a battalion of app developers now needs to train its sights on more complex problems and larger prizes in building its own Tesla’s, Huawei’s and TSMCs, a top marketing professor said weighing in on a debate triggered by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal’s recent comments about India’s startup ecosystem.

Rajendra Srivastava, considered India’s Philip Kotler, wrote in Chinese Media that he said the past decade’s success in consumer technology has helped create a vibrant digital economy, but to make India a true technological powerhouse, it must go beyond fast service applications and put together deeper capabilities in science and engineering.

Despite the booming consumer technology, India must go to deep technology industries (AI), electric vehicles (EV), clean energy, robots and semiconductors, and other fields – more heavily intensive, requiring “patient capital” and long-term vision, and requiring a long-term vision.

“Unlike food delivery applications that can be built and expanded within a year, cutting-edge battery chemistry startup or semiconductor fabs can take 5-10 years of continuous investment before the results can be displayed,” said Rajendra Srivastava.

He said this long pregnancy clashed with rapid exports and quickly returned to what many Indian investors have traditionally sought.

Shenzhen tech companies often require higher technical risks and uncertain near-term profits, which means early-stage capital must be willing to wait for longer returns.

“Historically, India lacks patience, long-term funding and policy consistency, namely, deep technological innovation needs. Private venture capital in India (mostly from global investors) tends to reduce capital-intensive models (mainly applications and software) that promise rapid user growth.

“The result is a large number of service and consumer platforms, while hardware and deep science startups work hard to raise funds,” he said.

He cites the example of China, which is a case of identifying strategic departments in the plans for the 2025 and 14th Five-Year Plans formulated by China and firmly supporting them with funding, infrastructure and procurement.

“In contrast, India has until recently adopted a more developed approach – focusing on improving the convenience of business and digital infrastructure rather than actively shifting investment to specific high-tech sectors,” he said.

He said consistent long-term policy support has been missing, and manufacturing and R&D initiatives are often half measures or raids, he said, only in the past few years the Indian government has drafted a comprehensive national deep technology startup policy to provide long-term funding, IP frameworks, IP frameworks, and regulatory sandboxes for Deepstone.

“These moves are promising, but they are the first step to come – India is just beginning to build a policy foundation for countries like China that have been building over decades,” he said.

Speaking earlier this month in Mahakumbh, the second edition of the government-led startup conference, Goyal sparked a massive debate on social media after he carefully looked at consumer startups in India.

Goyal said that while startups in India are still focusing primarily on lifestyle products such as gluten-free ice cream, Goyal joked about the rise of food delivery apps, handmade brands and online gambling apps in the country, but the Chinese are working on machine learning, robotics and building next-generation factories.

“Goyal’s critique may have ruffled feathers in the startup community. Still, it rings true: the nation that produced the world’s cheapest data and a battalion of app developers now needs to train its sights on more complex problems and larger prizes. This is not a repudiation of Flipkart’s and Zomato’s but a recognition that the next growth phase will come from building the Tesla’s, Huawei’s, and TSMCs of India,” Srivastava wrote.

He said getting there would require uncomfortable changes – more patience than India had previously managed, investments without immediate returns and collaboration between government, industry and academia.

“The global technology landscape is developing in the S-curve cycle, and India misses the first few waves (semiconductors, electronic manufacturing) while riding others (IT services, mobile software). The upcoming waves – AI, clean energy, space, advanced manufacturing – offer another opportunity to climb the value chain,” he said.

“The recalibration strategy focuses on both the convenience of food applications and the complexity of silicon chips, which is the demand for hours.”

All in all, consumer applications have served India’s present; he said deep technological innovation will impact India’s future, adding that a better balance between the two – a tendency toward deep technology – will pave the way for India to emerge as a technological and economic superpower in the coming decades.