IISc’s Pravriddhi aims to give a fillip to manufacturing, reduce import-reliance

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) contribute to around 30% of India’s GDP generating more than 23 crore jobs, second only to agriculture. A large portion of SMEs operate in the capital goods sector. The Economic Survey 2024-25 points out that despite a robust growth trajectory in 2024, the capital goods sector has been increasingly reliant on imports. 

“Due to technology gaps, this sector imports the high-end machines required for manufacturing. There is an urgent need to address the technology, skill and infrastructure gaps,” the report notes.  

Pravriddhi, a product accelerator programme by the Foundation for Science, Innovation, and Development (FSID) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc,) aims to bridge this gap by encouraging market-driven innovation and manufacturing in the capital goods sector and replicating it at scale. Launched in November 2024, the accelerator aims to bring together enterprises and premier institutions for the same.  

Yogesh Pandit
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Import-reliance in manufacturing 

In India, imports in the capital goods sector have been massive. Yogesh Pandit, Director – Product Acceleration, FSID, explains.  

“In the capital goods market in the country, you have 10 sub-sectors including heavy electrical machinery, textile, printing and so on. All put together, we are importing around ₹1.5 lakh crore worth of equipment into the country. If we start making these products in the country, that much money could be stopped from going outside.” 

However, the SMEs in the country which primarily operate on cost arbitrage have had no incentive to work in the direction of technological innovation. 

B. Gurumoorthy

B. Gurumoorthy
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

“If you look at the SME sector in the country, they are either into contract manufacturing or white label manufacturing. We look at how to move them up the value chain,” says B. Gurumoorthy, Director- FSID and Professor at IISc.  

The seeds of Pravriddhi were sown when FSID started a project with the Ministry of Heavy Industries to work with a cohort of companies to build products at an accelerated pace. The first cohort, which is currently running, consists of eight enterprises working on eight different products with the help of mentors from IISc. According to Gurumoorthy, Pravriddhi was an attempt to see if this could be scaled further.  

“The goal remains the same,” he notes, “which is manufacturing of indigenous designs that are market driven.” 

While one aim of the programme is to create a dent in the current technology imports to the country, the other looks at new technologies which may be India-specific at present but could become a global requirement in the future. 

A NITI Aayog report in 2024 noted that Indian needs to strive to become a USD 30 trillion economy by 2047. Upgrading capabilities in manufacturing is crucial to this.  

Pandit points out that to realise the USD 30 trillion goal, manufacturing needs to hit USD 7.5 trillion or 25% of it. But currently it comes to only about USD 630 billion.  

“This means that in the next 22 years, the sector needs to see a 12x jump. That is not organically possible,” he says underling the role of accelerators like Pravriddhi in bridging the technology gap and academic-industry gap and boosting R&D in the sector. 

Structured programme

Pravriddhi structures its programme with its first touchpoint as the market.  

“We have conducted a survey of the market to understand what are the products that we import currently, how do we import substitute and so on. Then we identified a curated list of themed cohorts. For example, if we look at EVs, what are we importing under EVs?” Pandit explains. 

In the next step, the team understands what products are in demand and how long the demand could be. It also identifies the technology gaps and what is stopping the local players from building the technology.  

The next step is to identify the industry partners or enterprises suitable for the work.  

“We are not approaching startups,” emphasises Pandit.  

“Since we are focused on the market and have a limited amount of time, we go with experienced companies that have been around for 10 years in the adjacent space. For example, if we want to make a motor for EV, we look for somebody who is a veteran in motors, so that we don’t have to teach them how to make a motor. We just need to give them a delta of how to make a motor for EV. And they know how to sell it; We don’t have to teach them how to sell it.” 

The team is also setting up a vendor network to overcome the potential capability gap.  

“Let’s say the motor company onboarded can make 10 lakh EV motors, but not more than that. Through the vendor network, we would bring in another vendor who can manufacture that many motors for him.” 

The cohorts go through a 30-month cycle where the first 18-24 months would be spent on R&D and the remaining one year in go-to-market.  

According to Pandit, the current cohort has generated 23 IPs so far, the value of which surpasses the initial investment. As more and more IPs are generated, he feels that the technological challenges the country faces in the sector will be largely addressed. 

 MoU signing with Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) during the Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025 in the presence of 𝗦𝗵𝗿𝗶 𝗛. 𝗗. 𝗞𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘄𝗮𝗺𝘆, 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝘃𝘆 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀, and other dignitaries.

 MoU signing with Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) during the Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025 in the presence of 𝗦𝗵𝗿𝗶 𝗛. 𝗗. 𝗞𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘄𝗮𝗺𝘆, 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝘃𝘆 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀, and other dignitaries.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Scaling up

FSID, which is currently running its first cohort, has submitted a proposal for its next cohort. While initially the idea is to host and guide the cohorts at the IISc campus, the team has been talking to other partners and research organisations who would be open to running similar accelerators on their premises.  

In January 2025, FSID signed an MoU with the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) to replicate the product accelerator platform developed under Pravriddhi programme and establish a Centre of Excellence focusing on research, development, technology innovation, and testing, validation, and engineering services in the mobility space. 

“That’s how we intend to scale, because at best we can do 8 to 10 companies in a cohort. Even if you do two cohorts a year, the number of companies would be very limited. But if there are 10 such accelerators like us across the country then that number becomes quite large,” Gurumoorthy notes. 

Needs more private support

The team also feels more investment from the private sector would be crucial in giving fillip to technological innovations in manufacturing. So far, most of the investment has been from the government.  

“On the investment side, there is risk because nobody has gone through the cycle to have the confidence that this kind of thing will pay off,” admits Gurumoorthy.  

“Right now, we are leaning on the government. But if we can show the success of these programmes, the industry will be confident that this process will pay off. Then we can slowly wean them away from government funding,” he hopes. 

According to him, the programme is already seeing some interest from a few private funds.  

“We don’t know where they will participate; they may only want to participate when the product is ready, then they may want to invest in facilities for manufacturing at scale… That is also good because the company benefits and therefore the country benefits. But we would like them to also replace the government as the risk funding partner,” he adds.