India, since Independence, has never quite built a reputation for research, development or deep innovation. The widely accepted explanation for this is the lack of funding – both public and private – allocated to R&D initiatives.
But very little is said about why those budgets remain so limited in the first place.
The underlying reason, in my view, is not just economic. It is demographic.
At the time of Independence, India’s population stood at around 35 crore. Today, that number is closer to 140 crore. This represents a staggering 300 percent increase in less than eight decades. That growth, paired with mass migration to urban areas, has led to population densities that are among the highest in the world.
The rapid vertical expansion of our cities is accelerating this trend even further. It is now nearly impossible to find an urban setting that offers any real degree of stillness, space or calm.
But innovation demands exactly that. It thrives not just on resources and capital, but also on uninterrupted time, peace of mind, and – very often – the ability to be surrounded by nature. Rivers, lakes, forests and mountains are not romantic backdrops. They are enablers of contemplation, of reflection, of deep work.
Most Indian cities today are miles away from such an environment. And our rural regions, while closer to nature, lack the necessary infrastructure to support research at scale. The result is a country that is neither built for innovation, nor prioritised to enable it.
This is also why India has become a fertile ground for distribution-focused investments. With such a large, concentrated population, it is often more commercially viable to fund logistics and marketplaces than to bet on original IP. And so our capital tends to flow where the population is easiest to monetise, rather than where ideas are easiest to nurture.
What India needs, perhaps urgently, is a district dedicated solely to research and innovation. One that is immersed in nature, yet built with world-class physical and digital infrastructure. It does not need to be large. It simply needs to be intentional.
Because until we create a real home for innovators, we will keep buying innovations built elsewhere.