RT team
Zoho co-founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu offered a candid assessment of India’s innovation landscape in a recent post on X, rating the nation’s product innovation capacity at just 35%. According to Vembu, this score might even be “optimistic,” underscoring the urgent need for India to significantly boost its innovation capabilities.
“UPI shows that we can do it,” Vembu wrote, referring to India’s successful digital payments platform. “But there is still so much work to do.” He emphasized that while project management has improved, the country now needs more “product people”—visionaries who can imagine and create new systems, rather than just maintain existing ones.
Vembu outlined three additional areas of innovation: process innovation, technology innovation, and scientific breakthroughs.
He praised India’s strong performance in process innovation, rating it at 70%. Sectors like airlines, hospitals, retail, and financial services were cited as world-class. However, he noted that smaller and mid-sized companies need to adopt these process efficiencies to ensure broader progress.
In technology innovation, Vembu said India is still falling short. A major issue, he noted, is the steady export of India’s top technology talent. “We have to first retain that talent,” he said, explaining that talented individuals will only stay if they are offered challenging, meaningful opportunities. He also suggested that India could attract its diaspora back by launching and funding ambitious tech projects in the private sector.
On the topic of scientific breakthroughs, Vembu acknowledged that India lags behind globally but pointed to a growing pool of young scientists. He called on the government to play a more active role in funding research and providing the infrastructure needed to support breakthroughs.
Overall, Vembu’s assessment highlights both the progress India has made and the significant gaps that remain, particularly in high-impact innovation areas.
Source: Sridhar Vembu via X, May 2025.
