Overview

• Union Ministers Jitendra Singh and Dharmendra Pradhan released NITI Aayog’s report “Pathways to Progress: Analysis and Insights into India’s Innovation Story” at the think tank’s New Delhi headquarters.
• Singh called for early, equal partnerships between industry and academia to turn research into scalable ventures, citing India’s vaccine development as an example.
• The report frames India’s drive toward Viksit Bharat 2047 with global benchmarks, noting a rise to 39th in the Global Innovation Index and a startup base exceeding 100,000 with over 100 unicorns, with roughly half now emerging from Tier‑2 and Tier‑3 cities.
• Persistent gaps identified include weak institutional linkages, shortages of patient capital for deep‑tech, uneven state‑level capacity, and deficiencies in IP protection and commercialisation.
• Proposals include sector‑specific interface bodies modelled on BIRAC and IN‑SPACe, alignment with the National Deep Tech Startup Policy and ANRF, and a call by Pradhan to position India as a global brand of excellence in knowledge, science and technology.