Last week I attended TiEcon hosted by TiE Delhi-NCR - focusing on "India's Deeptech Ascent: Celebrating the Builders of Bharat & Startups for Sovereignty."

Some takeaways ✍

AI is now a commodity The usual suspects were there - marketing automation, HR tools, customer service bots. But what was more interesting was seeing the diversity of niche applications:

Rice grain quality analysis using computer vision
Biogas production from algae
Space tech applications (satellite data analytics, launch systems)
Agricultural yield prediction models
Regional language processing for Bharat markets

The sovereignty conversation is real India is the 4th largest economy, on track to become 3rd in about 2 years. And there's a clear push to reduce dependency on foreign AI infrastructure.

Piyush Goyal (Union Minister of Commerce and Industries) laid out the government's commitment:

₹1 lakh crore Anusandhan Fund for R&D
Startup risk capital initiatives
Tax incentives and regulatory reforms for deep tech startups
Focus areas: AI, quantum computing, defense tech, semiconductors Vision: Position India as a global technology leader by 2047

Abhishek Singh (India's Additional Secretary for AI) got into the technical details of how this is actually happening:

India is investing in its own GPU infrastructure
Building foundational models using on-prem training with open source
CBSE is even planning on adding AI as a new subject in the school curriculum

Whether all this will actually work remains to be seen, but the commitment level from the government is high.

No-Ceiling Summit for women entrepreneurs by Kalaari Capital The conference dedicated a full day to women entrepreneurship under the "No-Ceiling" summit. The focus was on celebrating the achievements and creating support systems specifically for women founders led by Vani Kola. Inspiring to see this kind of intentional programming rather than just adding a token panel about diversity.

Deep Kalra's masterclass

The closing session with Deep Kalra (MakeMyTrip founder/CEO) was my favorite part.
On finding your edge: In the early 2000s, MakeMyTrip was getting crushed by competition. They found one customer insight - NRIs wanted to book travel to India but had no good options. So they pivoted to serve exclusively that segment, which differentiated them enough to survive and eventually scale.
On founder psychology: "Be like a duck - calm on the surface, even when you're paddling like crazy underneath." Don't let your team or investors see you panic, even when things are chaotic.
On what actually matters: Resilience is the most important founder skill. Not innovation, not vision, not fundraising ability.

All in all, an interesting look into the entrepreneurial ecosystem here. The next few years will be exciting to watch - especially seeing if India can actually build the sovereign tech infrastructure it's aiming for. 🚀