At a Bangalore startup event hosted by DeVC a couple weeks back, one of the panelists mentioned how Indian innovation is primarily in processes and not in technology. That is, Indian ventures do not perform truly novel, deep-tech or cutting-edge R&D but rather perfect the performance of complex processes with unparalleled efficiency at scale. Think Infosys for IT services or Narayana for healthcare.
I think this is largely true but will rapidly become outdated.
In the coming years, I think we will see Indian technology - physical/bio and not just digital - match, and even surpass, the world's best in terms of quality, while continuing to reap the benefits of cost-effective processes and a jugaad mindset to do it far cheaper than others. I already see this with what my friends are building - Naman Pushp is building the best drone tech on the planet at Airbound, Angad Daryani is creating the Tesla/Apple of air purifiers at Praan, Apurwa Masook is crafting advanced rocket propulsion systems at SpaceFields... the list could go on but I don't want to embarrass more folks than I have to ;)
I think we could reach a point, like Japan/Germany did, where Powered by Indian Technology will come to represent world-class tech at Global South prices. They're two big reasons we might not. One - Indian regulations shackle founders with stifling, uncertain, and shifting compliance reqs. Two - investors refuse to back deep-tech startups because of the lack of risk appetite and continued belief in solely process-drive innovation. Both of these unfortunately seem likely but I'm still optimistic Indian founders will jugaadnaut their way through.