Every time I attend a technology expo in India or the UAE, I notice a pattern.
Indian stalls are predominantly software.
Chinese stalls are predominantly hardware.
And within India's software identity, core software product development still doesn't receive the recognition it deserves.
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The journey began in the early 1990s with software services. Indian engineers solving technology problems for businesses in the West.
Then came the BPO, KPO, and ITES wave. While not software development in the traditional sense, it became part of the broader IT narrative. So much so that government policies often treated IT and ITES as a single category.
The next wave was start-ups.
Many built products for global markets. Others built for India using global capital. Much of the software innovation during this period involved adapting proven models to Indian realities.
E-commerce. Aggregation platforms. Marketplaces.
Important businesses, certainly.
But did we build enough foundational technology of our own?
There are notable exceptions. Companies such as Mastek, KPIT and Infosys have developed industry-specific products and platforms, often drawing from decades of services experience.
Yet, for a country with our engineering talent and scale, it feels like we should have covered far more ground over the last three decades.
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The good news is that we have an opportunity to accelerate.
AI can help us clear technical debt, compress development cycles, and pursue solutions that may have previously been uneconomical to build.
At the same time, we need a stronger hardware ecosystem. Software leadership without hardware capability leaves too much value on the table.
Perhaps the next chapter of India's technology story should not be about services, outsourcing, or adaptation.
Perhaps it should be about building.
