Defence tech startups must be able to take their innovations beyond R&D labs and prove the reliability of their products on the field, a senior L&T executive said on Friday.
“In sectors like defense, product reliability is absolutely critical. An idea that works in a lab is not enough—you need to take it into the field, face real-world conditions, and manage the many challenges that come with them,” said Arun T Ramchandani, Executive Vice-President, L&T
Responding to whether startups pose a competitive threat to giants like L&T, Ramchandani said, “ We believe this ecosystem can be a powerful catalyst for innovation—enabling large companies like ours to accelerate innovation and democratize it on a broader scale. It's a tremendous opportunity. Of course, many of these players, with their disruptive approaches, do pose challenges to established companies like ours.”
“We are fully aware of that, and we actively explore ways to leverage their strengths to support and enhance our own development”, he added.
Executive Vice-President, L&T was speaking in one of the panel discussion in the 2nd edition of Startup Mahakumbh where he was joined by Arjun Rao, Partner, Speciale Invest, Dr. Vinod Kumar, Director-PD, IN-SPACe.
Ramchandani also highlighted the significance of the sustainable approach needed to be taken up by the startups in the country.
“The path to success—and more importantly, sustainable success—is a tough one. For all the aspiring startups out there with innovative ideas, turning that innovation into a sustainable business model takes significant effort”, he said.
Ramchandani defined sustainability for the startups as building strong organizations, developing core capabilities, breaking into the market and establishing reliability in your product.
Startup Mahakumbh is spearheaded by India’s foremost Startup Ecosystem Leaders and led by FICCI in collaboration with ASSOCHAM, IVCA, NASSCOM, Bootstrap Foundation, and other key industry stakeholders, with support from the National Startup Advisory Council (NSAC), DPIIT, and Startup India.
