India Tech Report

Tag: Newsletter

  • Why Ashok Jhunjhunwala dreams of 20 million Ranchos, Mindgrove’s latest partnership

    Why Ashok Jhunjhunwala dreams of 20 million Ranchos, Mindgrove’s latest partnership

    Hi, wherever you are, I hope you’re doing well. Thank you for supporting my work by being a subscriber. It means a lot. Here’s today’s Deep Tech Dispatch. Happy reading and listening.

    The Lede

    If you’re interested in India’s semiconductor products ecosystem, here’s some news for you today. It’s one milestone for one young company, but one more significant step in India’s efforts to move from being almost entirely reliant on imports in a trillion-dollar industry to building our own supply chain.

    Mindgrove Technologies: Indian silicon moves from lab to market

    For decades, India’s semiconductor industry resembled an architect designing villas for others while living in a rented flat. The country’s semiconductor engineers, who constitute approximately 20 percent (a widely accepted industry estimate) of the global chip-design workforce, have long generated intellectual property for foreign titans while India remained dependent on imports for its own consumption.…

    In the latest episode of Conversations, today

    20 million Ranchos: Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala’s vision for achieving tech sovereignty for India

    In this episode, I’m joined by Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala, a doyen among India’s champions of technology-led innovation for the masses, to discuss his latest moonshot venture: the ITEL Foundation (Immersive Technology and Entrepreneurship Lab). After decades of bridging academia and industry at the IIT Madras Research Park, over the last two years, Professor Jhunjhunwala has…

    If you missed last week’s episode

    Founder Spotlight

    That’s it for today. When you have a minute, please would you share this with friends who might be interested in India’s deep tech startups. Here’s wishing you a great rest of the day.

    — Hari

  • Can India put a trillion dollars in deep tech? Vinod Shankar at Java Capital unpacks how

    Can India put a trillion dollars in deep tech? Vinod Shankar at Java Capital unpacks how

    Hi, wherever you are, I hope you’re doing well. Thank you for supporting my work by being a subscriber. It means a lot. Here’s today’s Deep Tech Dispatch. Happy reading and listening.

    The Lede

    In today’s episode of Conversations, I’m joined by Vinod Shankar, co-founder of Java Capital, a venture capital firm that has carved a unique niche by focusing on deep tech and climate technology. Vinod’s journey is as specialized as his investments, moving from writing assembly code for mobile processors to leading a fund that backs moonshots in aerospace, silicon photonics, and advanced manufacturing.

    Vinod recently ignited a lively debate in the startup ecosystem with his provocative essay, titled “I Want India to Win. Just Not With My Money.” He argues that India’s path to becoming a developed nation is being hindered by “sedimented” wealth. For example, consider one data point he highlights: while India’s wealthiest 1 percent control some $11.6 trillion, nearly 60 percent of those assets are frozen in real estate and gold.

    In other words, not funding the future, he says. He also critiques India’s largest corporations for being “structurally allergic” to R&D risk, noting that global giants such as NVIDIA outspend the entire Indian corporate sector in a single quarter.

    In this conversation we also talk about Java Capital’s next fund, their third, targeting Rs. 400 crore with a first close coming up, their “stacking” investment strategy, and Vinod’s urgent call for India’s ultra rich investors to allocate 10 percent of their net worth to domestic deep tech to secure the future of the nation’s technological sovereignty.

    If you missed last week’s episode

    That’s it for today. When you have a minute, please would you share this with friends who might be interested in India’s deep tech startups. Here’s wishing you a great rest of the day.

    — Hari