Sridhar Vembu Advocates for India's Technological Independence

Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu stresses India's need to build indigenous tech capabilities, warning against reliance on high-tech imports. He highlights the importance of intellectual property ownership and self-reliant innovation without heavy government support, while advocating for mother tongue revival in national discourse to utilize India's full potential.

Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu emphasized the urgent need for India to cultivate deep technological capabilities, advocating for the nation's independence from reliance on high-value tech imports. In an interview with ANI, Vembu warned that a perpetual dependency on importing technologies while exporting low-value products could hinder India from becoming a high-income trading nation.

Vembu drew a parallel with oil-dependent economies, stating the necessity for India to enhance its value addition to achieve higher income status. He underlined the importance of creating intellectual property within the country, stressing that it's not just about data localization but ensuring that IP is controlled locally to avoid being trapped in a low-value economic cycle.

Highlighting Zoho's self-driven innovation journey, Vembu argued that government backing is not crucial in most tech areas, pointing to China's ecosystem as an example of entrepreneurial belief. He also called for the revival of Indian languages in national discourse, arguing that relying on English excludes a significant portion of the talent pool from contributing effectively to technology sectors.

(With inputs from agencies.)