India Tech Report

In this episode, I catch up with Saurabh Chandra, founder and CEO at Ati Motors, to discuss his views on how factory automation is evolving in the era of physical AI, as robots finally begin to “break out of the yellow cages” of safety zones. Ati Motors makes autonomous mobile robots for materials movement in factories, and its customers include several Fortune 500 companies. As Ati expands its fo...

The idea of a “lights out” factory or a “dark factory” is decades old. Engineers dreamed of fully automated installations where robots and machines took over — without human intervention — and made useful things for us. Cars, for example. But a combination of both technical challenges and real-world non-engineering problems ensured that such factories remained more science fiction and less reality...

In any field, and especially in deep tech, India's startups don't get the type of funding that Silicon Valley ventures command. In fact even a modest Series A fund raise takes a long time and represents a solid achievement for Indian startups. Therefore how can they make a dent, globally, in a field like robotics that is extremely hardware intensive and integrating the physical robot and its "inte...

The ultimate aim for robot makers is to build a fully general-purpose machine that can pretty much perform any task that we can do. At that point we'll have robots that can finally relieve us of the daily drudgery of doing the laundry, washing the dishes and putting out the trash. In the mean time, there are two distinct approaches being followed by robotics companies, says Arjun Dutt, a partner a...

Arjun Dutt , a partner at Bain & Company, spoke with me a couple of weeks ago on the global consultancy's views on how robotics technologies are evolving. Arjun recently co-authored a note on the impact of early commercialisation of humanoid robots — how that will likely play out in three waves, from 'brownfield' plants to eventually, our homes. You can catch the full conversation via the rela...

In this episode, we explore the rapidly evolving world of physical intelligence with Arjun Dutt , a Partner at Bain & Company and former entrepreneur. As generative AI transitions from digital interfaces into the physical world, Arjun explains why humanoid robots are emerging as a solution to the worsening labour shortages, especially in the so-called ‘brownfield’ plants in many advanced econo...

Coming up on India Tech Report, we dive into the future of physical intelligence with Arjun Dutt, Partner at Bain & Company. Arjun explains how, aided by both physical tech breakthroughs and generative AI moving beyond the screen and into the physical world, humanoid robots are on the cusp of becoming a likely solution to global labor shortages – one of the big applications driving the multi-b...

Once upon a time, it used to be a popular joke in many industry speeches in India — one that government leaders used to sportively join in — that the IT services industry grew “despite the government.” Of course, it was untrue. Several forward-thinking officials and technocrats in governments both at the central and state levels played a strong role in helping that industry grow. As did many top p...

In today’s episode, we dive into the future of robotics with Gokul NA, founder of CynLr, or Cybernetics Laboratory, perhaps one of India’s most advanced companies in this field. CynLr is headquartered in Bengaluru, with an advanced R&D Lab in Switzerland and a growing customer-facing operation in the US, where Gokul’s fellow founder Nikhil Ramaswamy is based. The entrepreneur duo and its 85-me...

There are challenges beyond importing sophisticated components that India’s deep tech startups can’t yet source locally. Some of these challenges are equally or more fundamental. I had a chance to get some insights on this from Apoorv Shaligram, founder and CEO at e-TRNL Energy, recently. Apoorv, his fellow founder Uttam Sen, and their team are innovating new cell architectures to make cells, batt...

In this episode I’m joined by Apoorv Shaligram, founder and CEO of e-TRNL Energy. Apoorv, and his fellow founder Uttam Sen, IIT Bombay alumni both, and their team are tackling the electric vehicle industry’s most critical “wants”: high levels of safety and fast charging. While battery chemistry has attracted a lot of innovation effort, e-TRNL is focusing on the cell architecture instead. Their cor...

Coming up, tomorrow, a conversation with Apoorv Shaligram, founder and CEO at e-TRNL Energy in Bengaluru, where he and fellow founder Uttam Sen are innovating the next generation battery cell architectures and advanced manufacturing processes. Apoorv and Uttam recently announced raising Rs. 27.4 crore (About $3 million) in seed funding, led by IAN Group (Indian Angel Network), with Navam Capital,...

So, this morning, I drove up to the new office that Apoorv Shaligram and Uttam Kumar Sen and their team at e-TRNL Energy have set up – still being given some final touches before a formal inauguration soon. Sat down with Apoorv to record the next episode of Conversations. And it’s always an awesome experience to do this in-person, in whatever conditions present themselves onsite, in terms of light...

Listen to the point MEINE Electric is an Indian deep-tech startup in Chennai, developing iron-air battery systems designed for long-duration energy storage of 16 to 24 hours. Founders Priyansh Mohan and Stuti Kakar hope that these batteries will help accelerate India’s transition to net zero carbon emissions. They use a process of controlled reversible rusting to create a cost-effective, sustainab...

Priyansh Mohan and Stuti Kakkar, founders of MEINE Electric, a deep tech startup in India, in the area of battery energy storage systems. Image source: MEINE Electric. Edited by Hari Arakali. In this episode, I’m joined by Priyansh Mohan and Stuti Kakkar, school friends turned co-founders at MEINE Electric, to talk about their innovations in developing iron-air battery energy storage systems (BESS...

Priyansh Mohan and Stuti Kakkar, founders of MEINE Electric in Chennai, are developing an Iron-air battery energy storage system that they hope will help reduce curtailment of renewables-based power. Listen to the preview Renewable energy in India faces a fundamental problem of timing. Solar panels and wind turbines produce electricity when nature dictates, not necessarily when industrial factorie...

Jay Panchal, founder and CEO at Aule Space, a Bengaluru space-tech startup that is developing a light-weight mission extension vehicle. Photograph by Hari Arakali. Today I’m joined by Jay Panchal , founder and CEO of Aule Space , in Bengaluru. Jay started the company in 2024 with his fellow founders Nithyaa Giri, who’s Aule’s CTO, and Hrishit Tambi, its COO. He talks about their efforts so far to...

Jay Panchal, founder and CEO at Aule Space, along with his fellow founders Nithyaa Giri and Hrishit Tambi, has raised $2 million led by pi Ventures, to build ‘jetpacks’ that can keep satellites going. Listen to the preview Coming up on Tuesday, Feb. 3 For my next episode of Conversations at India Tech Report, I sat down with Jay Panchal, the young Founder and CEO at Aule Space. Jay and his fellow...

Manish Singhal, founding partner at pi Ventures, is a leading early-stage VC investor in deep tech startups in India. Image source: pi Ventures. Edited by Hari Arakali. In this episode, I’m joined by Manish Singhal , founding partner of pi Ventures , a Bengaluru-based early-stage venture capital firm backing some of India’s most ambitious deep tech startups. India’s start-up story is often told th...

Listen to the preview Coming up on Tuesday, Jan. 27. For my next conversation, I sat down with Manish Singhal , founding partner at pi Ventures , one of the earliest bona fide deep tech investors in India. pi Ventures turns 10 is a couple of months. Before pi, Manish, an IIT Kanpur alumnus with over two decades of operating experience, built products and teams at Motorola, Ittiam Systems, and Slin...

Hrishit Tambi, Jay Panchal and Nithyaa Giri, founders of Aule Space Technologies, aim to put India in the club of nations offering ISAM technologies. Image source: Aule. Edited by Hari Arakali. Listen to the episode Two space-tech startups kicked off 2026’s funding news for the sector in India, aiming to expand India’s presence in the global space economy in two challenging areas. And they’ve both...

Founders of Perceptyne Robots, Mrutyunjaya N, Raviteja Chivukala and Jagga Raju N are building autonomous, dexterous robots and the physical AI stack needed. Listen to the audio What are some of the practical, seemingly small but truly challenging engineering problems in translating what seems intuitive to humans to robotics automation, today? Mrutyunjaya N, Raviteja Chivukala and Jagga Raju N, fo...

In this year’s first episode, I’m joined by Mrutyunjaya N , Raviteja Chivukala and Jagga Raju N to unpack why and how they started Perceptyne Robots , and what it takes to build an AI-native robotic system out of India. Perceptyne is a Hyderabad-based company building dexterous, dual-arm, intelligent robots for industrial automation, currently focused on automotive and electronics manufacturing li...

Founders of Perceptyne Robots, Mrutyunjaya N, Raviteja Chivukala and Jagga Raju N are building autonomous, dexterous robots and the physical AI stack needed. Happy new year to all of you deep tech enthusiasts in India. An area in which 2026 is already shaping up to be one that will likely see advances, is robotics and automation and the AI needed for this, being called physical AI or even ’embodie...

Hyundai Motor Group’s MobED AMR on display at an exhibition. Image source: Hyundai. Listen to the episode Spotify YouTube (00:20) Mobile robots market to nearly double by 2030 Global demand for mobile robots is set to surge, with the market projected to grow from $27.39 billion in 2025 to $52.11 billion by 2030, driven by AI, 5G, e-commerce, and labour shortages, while Asia-Pacific leads adoption...