Mumbai, March 20 – Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will lead discussions among over 200 startup founders and investors at the Bharat Innovates deep-tech pre-summit, which begins at IIT Bombay on Saturday, an official said.
The two-day event, which will showcase startups, investor interactions, and industry networking, will feature around 137 promising deep-tech startups selected from over 3,000 applications received from across the country, according to an official statement.
The Bharat Innovates initiative was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the inauguration of the India-France Year of Innovation.
As a flagship programme of the Ministry of Education, it operates under the strategic guidance of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.
The programme is conceived as a global accelerator for Indian deep-tech, building lasting bridges between India’s higher education innovation ecosystem (startups, labs, and research parks) and global stakeholders, including corporates, investors, incubators, universities, and governments.
The inaugural session will be attended by Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, and Chairperson of the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC). The event will also see the participation of senior government officials, academics, and entrepreneurs.
Bharat Innovates 2026 will unfold across three milestones: National Basecamp: Gandhinagar and Mumbai (December 2025 and January 2026); Bharat Innovates Deep-Tech Pre-Summit: IIT Bombay, Mumbai (March 21–22, 2026) and International Innovation Showcase: Nice, France (June 14–16, 2026).
The Pre-Summit will bring together over 200 startup founders; over 70 investors and venture capital leaders; over 50 industry leaders, corporate partners, senior government stakeholders, and innovation missions.
The Bharat Innovates Deep-Tech Pre-Summit will showcase innovations across 13 critical technology domains, including Advanced Computing, Healthcare and MedTech, Space and Defence, Energy & Sustainability, Semiconductors, Biotechnology, Smart Cities and Mobility, Blue Economy, Next-Gen Communications, Agri and Food Technologies, Advanced Materials, Manufacturing & Industry 4.0, and Disaster Management.
These innovations, nurtured within India's premier institutions such as IITs, IISc, and leading research ecosystems, represent the next generation of globally competitive technologies emerging from India’s academic backbone, the statement said.