Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that science succeeds only when it travels from the laboratory to the land and improves people's lives, as he inaugurated the Emerging Science, Technology and Innovation Conclave (ESTIC) 2026 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.
Addressing an audience that included three Nobel laureates, top technocrats of India's scientific establishment, startup founders and scientists from India and abroad, Modi said the conclave must not become merely a forum for discussion but should deliver measurable outcomes. He urged researchers, startups and industry to set concrete three-year goals, whether a technology, a prototype, a pilot project or a product, in the service of a developed India.
The real success of science occurs when it steps out of the lab and makes the life of the common citizen better, the Prime Minister said, setting out what he called the ultimate benchmarks for scientific progress: Science for Society and Technology for Transformation.
Science and technology, he argued, should serve humanity rather than be viewed primarily as instruments of power or warfare, and progress should be measured not by how advanced a technology is but by the problems it solves and the number of lives it improves.
Modi said India's science and technology story had long been one of catching up with other countries, but that in the 21st century the country had emerged as a leader in scientific and technological developments. The discovery of zero showed that India has a culture of discovery, he said. Chandrayaan's landing near the lunar south pole, Mangalyaan's success on the first attempt, and the vaccines developed during the COVID-19 pandemic are examples of this.
He pointed to India's response to the pandemic, including the development of indigenous vaccines, the large-scale vaccination programme and the supply of vaccines to other nations, as evidence of growing scientific confidence.
The Prime Minister expressed satisfaction that Indian startups were prioritising areas that touch everyday life, citing work on wearable EEG technology to understand brain activity, indigenous wireless and satellite communications, specialised nutritional products, new semiconductor technologies and solutions to utilise industrial waste such as steel slag.
Emerging technologies, he said, must strengthen healthcare, transform agriculture, expand opportunities in education and employment, and help protect people from disasters.
Recalling his recent visit to IIT Madras in Chennai, Modi referred to the inauguration of a modern Brain Centre that has created a globally exemplary brain imaging technology platform. The platform aims to develop high-resolution digital three-dimensional images of the human brain and help unravel complex neurological diseases, an example, he suggested, of Indian research operating at the global frontier while serving a direct human need.
A central theme of the address was research funding. Modi said a country's technological capabilities depend on its research, and that efforts are under way to speed up the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), the body set up to power India's research ecosystem.
He recalled last year's pledge at the same forum to provide one lakh crore rupees for research, development and innovation, and said that over the past year the government had committed 12,000 crore rupees for taking research from the laboratory to the market, matched by an equal 12,000 crore rupees from private investors. Meaning, in just one year, a total new commitment of 24 thousand crore rupees has been made for research and development, he said.
The Prime Minister also pointed to a dramatic surge in intellectual property creation over the past decade. Annual patent filings in India had risen from about 50,000 to 1.5 lakh, he said, describing this as evidence of a strengthening culture of innovation rather than merely an increase in number. They are a sign of that change in which research and innovation are becoming a strong culture in India, he observed.
Strategic technologies received particular attention. Modi said India was accelerating its efforts to strengthen domestic capabilities in nuclear energy, space and semiconductors, and to reduce vulnerabilities arising from dependence on external sources. He pointed to nuclear energy as a critical area for India's long-term energy security, noting that a developed economy would require substantial and reliable energy supplies.
Ahead of the birth anniversary of Dr Homi Bhabha, the architect of India's nuclear programme, on October 30, he highlighted that India's indigenous 500-megawatt Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam had reached first criticality without imported fuel, a milestone in the country's three-stage nuclear programme.
The conclave itself reflects a reorganisation of India's science calendar. ESTIC, organised by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research under the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, replaces the Indian Science Congress, last held in 2023. Its second edition runs from October 27 to 29 at Bharat Mandapam under the theme Creative Minds, Catalyzing Science, Empowering Technologies, bringing together startups, researchers and industry.
Among the participants are Nobel laureates Joachim Frank, Sir Richard J. Roberts and Kostya Novoselov, and Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh told the gathering that India was no longer a follower but a global co-creator in science.
Underpinning the speech was Modi's slogan Jai Vigyan, Jai Anusandhan, praise for science and for research, which he presented as the spirit behind the government's push for self-reliance in critical technologies. A nation, he argued, can only create technology and secure its future if its research base is strong, and the test of that base is not the elegance of its papers but the difference it makes to ordinary people.
The emphasis on measurable outcomes also marks a shift in how India talks about its science establishment. For decades, the country's scientific achievements were often presented through the lens of prestige projects and institutional milestones. Modi's address deliberately recast them in terms of utility: what a technology does for a farmer, a patient, a student or a small business.
The startups showcased at the conclave, working on problems from brain imaging to industrial waste, were chosen to illustrate exactly that translation from research to everyday benefit.
That argument, repeated through the address in different forms, is the thread that connects its varied examples: the vaccines and the Mars mission, the Brain Centre and the fast breeder reactor, the patent numbers and the funding commitments. Each, in Modi's telling, is valuable insofar as it leaves the laboratory and enters people's lives, whether by protecting health, securing energy, feeding agriculture or opening employment.
The conclave, he made clear, will be judged by the same standard. Discussion is welcome, but only outcomes, measured in three years' time, will count as success.
(Reporting based on The Hindu and DD India.)