Interministerial panel consultations underway on deeptech policy: DPIIT Secy

Deeptech policy: There is a belief that there are elements of the startup ecosystem which focus on intensive research and development (R&D) and innovation which have a different set of requirements in terms of patent capital. And for that, there has been a suggestion that we build up a separate policy, DPIIT Secretary, Rajesh Kumar Singh told Republic Business in an exclusive conversation.

“Also, there is a suggestion that some separate funding mechanisms for deeptech startups which require long gestation periods and require much more hand-holding than the normal sort of process improvement type of startup that proliferate. So, this exercise is on right now,” Singh said.

He added that there are inter-ministerial consultations which are currently going on, and once that is completed, we hope to roll it out and thereafter create a separate, more facilitative window for deep tech start-ups by when we can expect it to be out.

“Government processes take their time. So, I really wouldn't like to sort of give a timeline, but we hope to do it as quickly as possible,” Singh added.

On being asked about India’s competition with Vietnam on the manufacturing front, the DPIIT Secretary replied that Vietnam is a comparatively smaller economy with a much smaller population. “Their (Vietnam) system is a bit more flexible. They have also tied up a large number of FTA around the world, something on which we are also now increasingly working. But I wouldn't say that we are competing with Vietnam in that sense.”

According to Singh, India is a much larger economy with a different set of needs and requirements. But there are elements of their approach in terms of its pragmatism, its ideological pragmatism, and its quick footedness in terms of concluding trade deals. Those are things that perhaps should be looked at.

“However, let me also add that when it comes to a country like India with the kind of size that it has, I don't think the comparison with a relatively smaller market like Vietnam is that relevant. India has its sort of strengths, particularly when it comes to services, but also increasingly in manufacturing. We hope that we can also transform our manufacturing subsystem ecosystem rather,” Singh added further.

Singh strong proponent of rationalising basic custom duty said that his department DPIIT is of the view that we need to take care of some of the distortionary tariffs that we have.

“We need to ensure that tariff inversions or inverted tariff structures, whether it is in GST or whether it is in customs tariffs, do need to sort of remedy and resolve to strengthen the hands of our entrepreneurs and improve the competitiveness of our manufacturing sector,” he added.