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Bharat Innovates was not a showcase. It was a statement about where India wanted to go.
Bharat Innovates brings 120 Indian deep-tech start-ups to the Palais des Expositions in Nice from 14 to 16 June.
For decades, the India-France defense partnership was defined by iconic platforms like the Rafale fighter jets and Scorpene submarines, platforms that were procured, delivered and operated.
The joint inauguration of India Innovates 2026 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Emmanuel Macron in Nice on June 14 shows that an era is ending, and a different era is beginning, focused on deeper tech collaboration, advanced manufacturing and technologies that will define future warfare.
Organized by India’s Ministry of Education, India Innovates brought 120 Indian deep-tech start-ups to the Palais des Expositions in Nice from 14 to 16 June, and pitched them to global investors, research institutes and industry partners as part of the India-France Year of Innovation. It covered sectors ranging from healthcare to agritech and clean energy. But space and defense was one of the largest groups on stage, and those companies weren’t there by chance. For India, the event was a working demonstration of self-reliant India: leveraging global partnerships not to import capacity, but to co-develop and build it at home.
India’s innovation base
120 start-ups were selected from over 3,000 applicants, who collectively held over 1,500 patents. Over 500 global investors participated along with corporate leaders from European aerospace and defense majors. PM Modi told the gathering that India is now ‘not just a consumer of solutions, but a contributor of solutions.’
which India brought to the floor
Defense and dual-use companies came to Nice with products, IP and, in many cases, operational deployments. The scope of what they create speaks for itself.
Drones, Swarms and Counter-Drone Systems
IdeaForge, already a supplier to India’s armed forces, makes high-endurance UAV platforms for the ISR. Rafe mPhibr builds military-grade aircraft systems from start to finish. Botlab Dynamics manufactures drone swarm technology under the Vayu brand. EndureAir Systems makes heavy-lift UAV platforms and robotic flight control hardware. Gurutva Systems, on the other hand, creates AI-enabled platforms for detecting, tracking, and neutralizing airborne threats. NewSpace Research & Technologies creates autonomous swarm systems and stratospheric platforms.
Electro-Optics and Targeting
Tonbow Imaging produces tactical EO and infrared optronics for land, naval, air and missile platforms, thermal sights, gimbaled payloads and precision munition seekers. EON Space Labs manufactures miniature EO and infrared payloads for drones and satellites. Optimized Electrotech creates long-range intelligent surveillance systems for border defense.
Propulsion and Aerospace Manufacturing
Nabhadrishti Aerospace manufactures an indigenous turbojet engine in the 20 to 400-plus kgf range for UAV and defense applications, claiming a three to five times cost advantage over imported alternatives. Dheya Engineering Technologies produces micro gas turbine engines and green hydrogen propulsion systems. Fabheads Automation creates automated composite manufacturing systems for airframe production.
marine and underwater
Recce Marine builds autonomous surface and underwater vehicles with a sovereign AI autonomy stack for the Indian Navy ISR. EyeROV creates indigenous marine robotics, including remotely operated and autonomous underwater vehicles.
space and orbital intelligence
Digantara Industries manufactures space domain awareness platforms to protect orbital assets. GalaxyEye has developed multi-sensor satellite imagery for observing the Earth in all seasons. Dhruv Space provides integrated satellite platform and ground station services. OrbitAid Aerospace builds on-orbit satellite servicing and refueling capabilities.
Quantum, Semiconductors and Communications
QNu Labs demonstrated a hybrid quantum security system combining quantum key distribution and post-quantum cryptography. “The world is in grave danger today, AI and quantum computers are going to break the encryption that underpins our digital economy,” its CEO told ANI in Nice. Agnit Semiconductor, India’s first GaN RF semiconductor company, manufactures end-to-end material-to-module integration for defense, space and radar systems. Netrasemi’s Edge AI chip is optimized for surveillance cameras, drones and robotics.
What his presence in Nice really means
India did not send these companies to France so that France could sell something to them. It sent them because India now has the technologies that European defense supply chains increasingly need, and France has shown a willingness to engage on more equal terms than most partners.
Drone and counter-drone companies address a gap that every NATO member is struggling to fill after Ukraine demonstrated the asymmetric lethality of low-cost autonomous systems. India’s UAV ecosystem, built largely without foreign dependency, produces platforms at price points and in operating conditions that Western manufacturers struggle to match. Rafe mPhibr and IdeaForge are not niche players, they are potential co-development partners and export candidates in linked supply chains.
Electro-optics and sensor companies address similar gaps. Tonbo Imaging’s thermal sights and precision seekers are already deployed on Indian platforms. The question at Nice was whether European defense integrators would consider them as suppliers and not just interesting exhibits.
Quantum security companies address a threat that India and France share in common. As both countries build sovereign digital infrastructure and protect classified military communications from quantum-enabled decryption, QNU Labs and Pramatra Space Technology provide an indigenously developed solution, which France’s own research institutes, as the QNU-Eindhoven collaboration formally demonstrated at the summit, are now ready to build on.
Agnit’s GaN RF semiconductors are perhaps the most strategically important. Gallium nitride is the material that powers next-generation radar and electronic warfare systems. An Indian company with end-to-end GaN capability on display opposite Safran and Thales is offering supply chain diversification at a time Europe is trying to reduce its semiconductor dependence on East Asia.
Overall, these companies indicate something about India-France relations that was previously missing on the Indian side: leverage. India is no longer arriving at the table with a list of checks and requirements. It is coming with the IP, manufacturing capabilities and technologies that the other party needs.
Architecture behind the peak
This change at the start-up level is reflected at the platform level. India has issued a letter of request to France for 114 Rafale fighter aircraft worth approximately Rs 3.25 lakh crore. But unlike the procurement of 36 jets in flyaway status in 2016, only 18 will be acquired this way under the new MRFA program. The remaining 96 will be manufactured in India, with Tata Advanced Systems already building a fuselage production facility in Hyderabad.
The objective is the same as was seen in Bharat Innovates: to move India from assembly and acquisition in the value chain to ownership of technology, manufacturing capacity and supply chain.
Safran and India’s Gas Turbine Research Establishment have formed a joint venture with significant technology sharing and IP arrangements with Indian partners to co-develop a new engine for the AMCA Mk II stealth fighter, an engine that could eventually power unmanned combat aerial vehicles and naval fifth generation fighters. The issue here is the direction they affirm: India is rewriting the terms of its defense ties, and France is the first major partner to accept the new terms.
real test
Unresolved source code questions will be a clear measure of how far acceptance goes. France has so far not agreed to transfer access to key elements of the Rafale’s mission software, including the mission computer and electronic warfare architecture, limiting India’s ability to independently integrate the indigenous weapons. The real measure of the new India-France framework will not be in the agreements signed in Nice, but in whether India gains the ability to design, modify and ultimately export co-developed technologies.
This question is more important than France. India has long been trying to avoid dependence on any one defense supplier, a lesson made more evident by the operational constraints it faces with Russian equipment after 2022. The companies that stood on the floor in Nice are the foundation of a different answer: one where India is not only diversifying its import sources, but building the capacity to need fewer imports altogether. In that sense, Bharat Innovates was not a showcase. It was a statement about where India wanted to go.
About the author
Vallari Parashar is Senior Deputy Editor at News18. She writes on geopolitics, defense and strategic affairs
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