ICONN Summit 2025 Sets “Viksit Bharat” Roadmap: Why India Wants “Industry Status” for R&D
By Santosh Sinha | Policy & Innovation Desk Date: November 29, 2025
Hyderabad: The CII ICONN Summit 2025, which concluded this week at T-Hub, was not just another startup gathering. It was a strategy session for the next 20 years.
As India chases the Viksit Bharat 2047 (Developed India) goal, the consensus among the 500+ industry leaders, policymakers, and deep-tech founders was clear: The old rulebook for innovation is broken.
To fix it, the summit delivered a bold new roadmap, headlined by a singular, urgent demand: Grant “Industry Status” to Research & Development (R&D).
The Core Demand: R&D as an Industry
For decades, R&D in India has been treated as a “cost center” or an academic pursuit. At ICONN 2025, leaders argued it must be recognized as a distinct economic sector.
Dr. Suchitra Ella, Vice President of CII, spearheaded this call, stating, “Recognizing R&D as an industry will unlock more investments, attract world-class talent, and encourage deeper collaboration between academia, startups, and corporates.”
What “Industry Status” Would Change:
- Tax Holidays: It would allow standalone R&D firms to access the same tax breaks and electricity tariffs as manufacturing units.
- Easier Credit: R&D labs could raise debt from banks against their intellectual property (IP), rather than just physical collateral.
- FDI Flows: It would streamline the path for global investors to fund pure-play research labs in India, similar to how they fund infrastructure projects.
Unlocking the “CSR Vault” for Deep-Tech
The second pillar of the roadmap focuses on capital. The summit highlighted a critical gap: India’s deep-tech startups (SpaceTech, Quantum, Bio-Tech) are starved of early-stage “patient capital.”
The proposed solution? Re-routing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds.
Historically, CSR money has gone into education or healthcare. The ICONN roadmap urges the government to classify “Deep-Tech Research” as a valid CSR activity.
- The Logic: If a corporation funds a startup building a water-purifying robot, it is serving a social good.
- The Impact: This simple policy tweak could unlock billions of rupees from corporate balance sheets, flowing directly into labs that are too risky for traditional VCs but too critical for the nation to ignore.
“Industry working with startups is nation-building,” noted Kris Gopalakrishnan, Chairman of CII CIES, urging family offices to create a dedicated “sovereign-style” fund for domestic deep-tech.
Hyderabad: The New “AI & Bio” Node
The summit also served as the launchpad for Telangana’s aggressive new tech policy. Special Chief Secretary Sanjay Kumar unveiled plans to position Hyderabad not just as an IT hub, but as a “Global Node for Trusted AI and Biologics.”
Key announcements included:
- The AI Hub: A new dedicated zone for Agentic AI and Cybersecurity startups.
- Biologics CoE: A Centre of Excellence focused on indigenous drug discovery, moving India up the pharmaceutical value chain.
The Road to 2047
The ICONN Summit 2025 has drawn the line in the sand. The message to the Centre is that Viksit Bharat cannot be built on assembly lines alone; it must be built on intellectual property.
By demanding Industry Status for R&D and unlocking CSR for science, India Inc. is asking for the tools to stop being the world’s back office and start being its laboratory.