The message from the ETAuto Tech Summit 2025 in Bengaluru was loud and clear: if India desires to place itself as a worldwide hub for automotive applied sciences, it should considerably step up its R&D investments and construct a deep, future-ready expertise pool. Trade stalwarts expressed concern over India’s lagging progress and emphasised the pressing must capitalise on the rising alternatives already unfolding inside the nation.
“R&D spending is essential to long-term development. Certainly one of our greatest misses has been underutilising alternatives to create IP, drive deep-tech innovation, and foster a powerful analysis tradition,” stated Kishor Patil, Chairman, NASSCOM ER&D Council, MD and CEO, KPIT Applied sciences. He added that international development tendencies clearly correlate with excessive R&D expenditure, and it’s time for Indian OEMs to maneuver past their acquisition mindset and as an alternative embrace grassroots innovation to construct a strong base of patented applied sciences and indigenous merchandise.
Drawing comparisons with innovation-driven nations just like the US and China, Patil identified that these international locations comply with a well-structured, multi-pronged strategy – government-led identification of key focus areas, direct mission allocation to OEMs, robust academia-industry ties, and lively help for startups. “India is just starting to construct this ecosystem,” he stated. “We have to deal with this as a fire-fighting train if we intend to shut the hole.”
The numbers again his concern. India’s R&D funding within the automotive sector stands at simply 0.65per cent of GDP, considerably behind China (2.56per cent ), the US (3.59per cent ), Japan (3.41per cent ), and Germany (3.13per cent ). “We’ve simply 4,552 international patents, whereas China has 70,160 and the US 54,087,” Patil stated. India at present ranks thirty ninth on the World Innovation Index 2024, whereas China sits at eleventh.
Dr. Pawan Goenka, Chairman, IN-SPACe (Indian Nationwide Area Promotion and Authorisation Centre), echoed the decision for change. “We should give attention to constructing ‘Model India’ by growing applied sciences indigenously, as an alternative of all the time trying to purchase them overseas,” he stated. “We’ve fallen behind in R&D, now could be the time to realign and push ahead with renewed intent.”
Including additional perspective, Dr. Reji Mathai, Director, ARAI, emphasised the necessity for localised options. “Growing the localisation of parts is important,” he stated. “We additionally want India-specific datasets and software program options tailor-made to real-world use instances within the nation.”
Dr. Andy Palmer, international automotive veteran and Chairman, Inobat Auto, captured the shifting paradigm, “The race within the automotive world at this time is for know-how management over market share.” Reflecting on the present geopolitical panorama, he highlighted the significance of strategic alliances and self-reliance. “India should act now to guard and strengthen its provide chains.”
