At the 7th IITMAA Sangam, the annual conference of the IIT Madras Alumni Association, held in Bengaluru, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government will work to facilitate patient capital for deep-tech hardware startups, alongside a broader argument that India’s growth story is stronger than critics suggest.
Pushing Back on the Pessimists
In a conversation with Prof. Rajeev Srinivasan, Sitharaman dismissed claims that India’s growth will stay limited to 2.5–3%. She pointed to how the economy moved out of the “Fragile 5” grouping over the past decade, and how the banking sector was revived with support of more than ₹3 lakh crore.
She also highlighted policy changes that opened most sectors to private players. Under the public sector enterprises policy, everything except eight strategic sectors is now open, including space and nuclear. That shift, she noted, has allowed Indian startups to take part in space missions, even manufacturing satellites.
India Has Not Missed the Bus
Sitharaman rejected foreign media reports that India has fallen behind in AI and quantum technology. She argued that judging national progress by the number of listed companies is the wrong yardstick. In her view, India can achieve growth above 10%, helped by innovations such as drones and point-of-sale technology in agriculture.
She added that replacing colonial-era laws with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with simpler tax policies, is building trust between the state, citizens and entrepreneurs. On funding, she said the ministry remains committed to shaping suitable policies and taking in suggestions to make patient capital available to deep-tech hardware startups.
A Fund and a Book Launched
At the event, Sitharaman launched the IITM Unicorn Frontier Fund-I, an Alternative Investment Fund jointly started by Unicorn India Ventures and IIT Madras / IITM Research Park. She also released Cashless Nation: How UPI Changed Everything, written by Santanu Paul and B. Sambamurthy.
The Self-Reliance Backdrop
Education Minister Pralhad Joshi described Sangam 2026 as a meeting point for technology, academia, industry, entrepreneurship and public service, tied to India’s push for self-reliance and Viksit Bharat 2047. He noted that installed electricity capacity has grown from 249 GW in 2014 to 552 GW, with about 310 GW from non-fossil sources. The grid recently handled a peak demand of 281 GW, nearly a third of it met by renewables.
Joshi also used IIT Madras as an example of that momentum: 560 startups, including 109 incubated in 2025–26, a combined valuation of ₹80,000 crore, 472 patents and ₹950 crore in alumni contributions. He added that the alumni association’s chapter network has grown from 16 to 51 chapters in three years.
