NM-ICPS develops 1100+ technologies, incubates over 1130 startups
India’s NM-ICPS has developed over 1,100 technologies and 1,300 products while incubating more than 1,130 startups, as four new Technology Translation Research Parks accelerate commercialisation.
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh
NEW DELHI: India’s National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) is moving from research and innovation towards large-scale technology translation and commercialisation, with its network of Technology Innovation Hubs developing more than 1,100 technologies and 1,300 technology products and incubating over 1,130 startups.
The progress was highlighted by Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
Implemented by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the NM-ICPS was launched in 2018 with a total outlay of Rs 3,660 crore over nine years. The mission focuses on strengthening India’s capabilities in emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things, data analytics, robotics, autonomous systems, cybersecurity and quantum technologies.
Under the mission, 25 Technology Innovation Hubs (TIHs) have been established at premier academic institutions across the country. Their activities span technology development, human resource and skill development, innovation and startup development, and international collaboration.
Four technology translation parks
A major shift in the programme during 2025–26 has been the upgrading of four best-performing TIHs into Technology Translation Research Parks (TTRPs).
The four TTRPs have been established at IIT Kanpur, IISc Bengaluru, IIT (ISM) Dhanbad and IIT Indore, with specialised focus areas covering cybersecurity, robotics and AI systems, mining technologies and digital healthcare respectively.
The objective is to accelerate the movement of technologies from laboratories and pilot projects into commercial applications and industry.
The mission has also reorganised its activities around priority cyber-physical systems verticals, each anchored by a Lead TTRP or TIH.
Healthcare is being led by IIT Indore, Agriculture and Water Technologies by IIT Bombay, Mining by IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, Cybersecurity by IIT Kanpur, and Mobility and Autonomous Systems by IISc Bengaluru.
These verticals are intended to provide a more focused framework for technology development, pilot deployment, industry partnerships and commercialisation.
From 5G to smart mining
The technologies emerging from the mission cover a wide range of strategic applications.
The TIH at IIIT Bengaluru has developed a 5G-Advanced ORAN Massive MIMO Radio Unit, or 32TR RU, aimed at enabling high-speed and cost-effective connectivity, particularly in remote and unconnected areas.
At IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, Smart Mining and Edge-AI Monitoring Solutions are being developed to improve the safety and efficiency of mining operations. These include drone connectivity capabilities extending up to 50 km for long-range monitoring.
The TIH at IIT Bombay has developed AI-enabled smart monitoring and advisory solutions combining artificial intelligence and IoT technologies for agricultural monitoring, decision support and productivity enhancement.
BharatGen pushes indigenous generative AI
One of the prominent initiatives supported under NM-ICPS is BharatGen, a generative AI initiative led by IIT Bombay in collaboration with a consortium of academic institutions.
The programme is focused on developing indigenous multimodal AI foundation models tailored to India’s linguistic and sectoral requirements.
Among the technologies being developed are Param-2, a 17-billion-parameter multilingual foundation model supporting all 22 Scheduled Indian languages; Shrutam speech-to-text and Sooktam text-to-speech models supporting 12 Indian languages; and Patram, or the DocBodh Framework, aimed at enabling conversational multilingual access to complex Indian documents.
The initiative is intended to strengthen India’s sovereign AI capabilities through India-centric datasets and foundation models.
More focus on commercialisation
The next phase of NM-ICPS is placing greater emphasis on industry partnerships, translational research and scaling validated technologies.
The government has provided enhanced funding support to TIHs at IIT Madras, IIT Hyderabad and IIT Bombay to strengthen translational research and technology commercialisation.
The coordinated work of the TTRPs and TIHs is expected to help move successful research outcomes and pilot deployments into scalable technologies and commercially viable solutions.
The broader objective is to build an ecosystem in which advanced cyber-physical technologies are not confined to academic laboratories but reach strategic sectors including healthcare, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, mobility and smart infrastructure.
With more than 1,130 startups already incubated through the mission, NM-ICPS is emerging as an important component of India’s technology innovation ecosystem, connecting academic research with entrepreneurship, industry adoption and the development of indigenous technologies.
