HCL’s Ajai Chowdhry On How India Can Build A Product-Led Innovation Ecosystem

HCL co-founder Ajai Chowdhry outlines how India can transition from services-led IT to a product-driven tech economy. He stresses national focus on semiconductor manufacturing, hardware innovation, and deep-tech R&D. The article urges academia to nurture creators, not just coders, while advocating stronger government incentives through Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes. It positions product innovation as crucial to economic sovereignty, competitiveness, and employment growth, calling for a coordinated ecosystem linking startups, capital, and advanced research.