CHENNAI: Seeking to position India’s deep-tech ecosystem on the global innovation map, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras will showcase a range of strategic technologies, research-led startups and indigenous innovation platforms at ‘Bharat Innovates 2026’, an international technology exposition to be held in Nice, France, from June 14-16.
Organised by the Union Ministry of Education as part of the India-France Year of Innovation 2026, the event is aimed at connecting Indian technology ventures emerging from higher educational institutions with global investors, industry leaders, research laboratories and policymakers.
IIT-M will anchor two of the event’s 13 thematic sectors, Blue Economy and Next-Generation Communications, while also presenting 15 incubated startups and a series of advanced research initiatives spanning Hyperloop systems, 5G and 6G technologies, AI ecosystems, port automation and lab-grown diamond technologies. “The India-France Year of Innovation 2026 and Bharat Innovates 2026 are expected to open new opportunities for collaboration between IIT-M and French universities, research labs, startups and industries,” said V Kamakoti, director, IIT-M. “IIT-M is looking at collaborations in areas such as 6G technologies, standards development, startup partnerships, technology transfer and talent exchange programmes.”
The institute’s participation comes at a time when India is increasingly projecting indigenous research and strategic technologies as part of its broader economic and technological ambitions.
Manu Santhanam, dean (Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research), IIT-M, said, “The platform will help demonstrate India’s growing capabilities in deep-tech innovation and research-driven entrepreneurship.”
Among the major attractions at the IIT-M pavilion will be Hyperloop technology developed by TuTr Hyperloop, an incubated startup that has demonstrated propulsion, levitation and vacuum tube systems at the institute’s Discovery Campus. IIT-M has been designated as the Centre of Excellence for Hyperloop Technology by the Ministry of Railways.
The institute will also showcase work on invisible laser-based markings inside lab-grown diamonds for authentication and anti-counterfeiting applications, alongside research in diamond-based semiconductors and quantum technologies.
In the telecommunications sector, startups including REIO Systems, Astrome Technologies and WiSig Networks will present indigenous Open RAN-based 5G and next-gen wireless communication platforms.
The Blue Economy segment will feature startups such as Planys Technologies, which develops AI-enabled underwater inspection systems, and Zerocircle, which manufactures seaweed-based alternatives to plastic packaging materials.
IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation will also present its low-compute Small Language Models aimed at building scalable and energy-efficient sovereign AI systems suited for India-scale applications.