Zoho's Sridhar Vembu urges India's deep-tech innovators to apply for Bharat Innovates 2026

New Delhi, Oct 17 (IANS) Zoho’s Chief Scientist and Co-founder Sridhar Vembu on Friday called on deep-tech innovators from Indian academic institutions and incubators to submit applications for the Bharat Innovates 2026 innovation showcase in France.

The deadline to submit applications is set for October 26, Vembu said in a post on social media platform X.

In the post, he said, "It is time to tell the world about all the deep tech work happening across India!"

He also shared a BharatInnovates announcement saying that the event will highlight and support local deep-tech innovations in June 2026.

"BharatInnovates2026 will nurture and showcase home-grown deep-tech innovations at France in June 2026, highlighting path-breaking ventures being nurtured at scale in India’s education ecosystem," the post read.

The Ministry of Education has launched Bharat Innovates 2026, a global innovation showcase of India’s top deep-tech innovations at Technology Readiness Levels 3–9.

The international event will present the selected 100 innovations to industry leaders, investors, policymakers, and collaborators.

It has been designed to represent India’s R&D backed technology innovation prowess being nurtured at higher education institutions and centrally funded technical institutes.

Chosen deep-tech ventures will get strategic support to refine their value proposition, access global markets and partnerships, and secure investment.

Applicants must be student-faculty teams from MOE-linked higher education institutions or CFTI research labs or pre-incubators, teams incubated at MOE-associated technology innovation or incubation centres, or ventures formally linked to these institutions.

If the innovation has graduated into a venture, the entity must be legally registered in India, and Indian founders must hold more than 51 per cent equity.

Sridhar Vembu’s Zoho Corporation had in September announced that it will make its homegrown messaging app Arattai interoperable like UPI and email, as the platform witnesses an unprecedented surge in downloads.

--IANS

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