ETAuto Tech Summit 2025: India's automotive tech dreams need a bold R&D reset, industry leaders at the event
The message from the ETAuto Tech Summit 2025 in Bengaluru was loud and clear: if India wants to position itself as a global hub for automotive technologies, it must significantly step up its R&D investments and build a deep, future-ready talent pool. Industry stalwarts expressed concern over India's lagging progress and emphasised the urgent need to capitalise on the growing opportunities already unfolding within the country.
'R&D spending is key to long-term growth. One of our biggest misses has been underutilising opportunities to create IP, drive deep-tech innovation, and foster a strong research culture,' said
Kishor Patil
, Chairman,
NASSCOM ER&D Council
, MD and CEO, KPIT Technologies. He added that global growth trends clearly correlate with high R&D expenditure, and it is time for Indian OEMs to move beyond their acquisition mindset and instead embrace grassroots innovation to build a solid base of patented technologies and indigenous products.
Drawing comparisons with innovation-driven nations like the US and China, Patil pointed out that those countries follow a well-structured, multi-pronged approach - government-led identification of key focus areas, direct project allocation to OEMs, strong academia-industry ties, and active support for startups. 'India is only beginning to build this ecosystem,' he said. 'We need to treat this as a fire-fighting exercise if we intend to close the gap.'
The numbers back his concern. India's R&D investment in the automotive sector stands at just 0.65per cent of GDP, significantly behind China (2.56per cent ), the US (3.59per cent ), Japan (3.41per cent ), and Germany (3.13per cent ). 'We have just 4,552 global patents, while China has 70,160 and the US 54,087,' Patil said. India currently ranks 39th on the Global Innovation Index 2024, while China sits at 11th.
Dr. Pawan Goenka, Chairman, IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre), echoed the call for change. 'We must focus on building 'Brand India' by developing technologies indigenously, instead of always looking to acquire them abroad,' he said. 'We have fallen behind in R&D, now is the time to realign and push forward with renewed intent.'
Adding further perspective, Dr. Reji Mathai, Director, ARAI, emphasised the need for localised solutions. 'Increasing the localisation of components is critical,' he said. 'We also need India-specific datasets and software solutions tailored to real-world use cases in the country.'
Dr. Andy Palmer, global automotive veteran and Chairman, Inobat Auto, captured the shifting paradigm, 'The race in the automotive world today is for technology leadership over market share.' Reflecting on the current geopolitical landscape, he highlighted the importance of strategic alliances and self-reliance. 'India must act now to protect and strengthen its supply chains.'
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