Insights · Notes from our team

Notes from the field.

Op-eds, thought-pieces and field notes on what we're seeing as we build the deep-tech platform India needs.

Interactive artifact · Insights N° 014

Maps of futures, drawn for builders.

109 technologies. Four lines. Twenty years - from what's shipping today to what's pre-paradigm in 2045. Click any station for the bet, the open problems, and the India angle. Interchanges mark where two lines collapse into one company.

Explore the map →
Translation Endeavors · Volume V
thesis
Jun 2026·Translation Endeavors · Volume V

India's next leap is translation.

Why translation is the lever that turns India's science, talent, and capital into deep-tech companies at scale, and what Bharat Innovates in Nice signals about the opportunity ahead.

Kunal Upadhyay
Translation Endeavors · Volume I
thesis
Apr 2026·Translation Endeavors · Volume I

The Indian energy transition will be built, not bought.

Why the next decade of climate and energy founders will be Indian - and why Translation Endeavors is positioned to back them.

Translation Endeavors team
Translation Endeavors · Volume II
thesis
Apr 2026·Translation Endeavors · Volume II

Indian biology, global pipelines.

The next decade of therapeutics, diagnostics, and devices will be discovered, engineered, and manufactured in India.

Translation Endeavors team
Translation Endeavors · Volume III
thesis
Apr 2026·Translation Endeavors · Volume III

Sovereign tech, frontier science.

Why the Indian deep-tech founder wave of 2024 to 2030 will produce more category leaders than the previous fifteen years combined.

Translation Endeavors team
Translation Endeavors · Volume IV
thesis
Apr 2026·Translation Endeavors · Volume IV

India will not build OpenAI.

And that is the right strategy. The Indian AI opportunity is sovereign, vertical, and physical.

Translation Endeavors team
On the face of it.
Shaastra · IITM
essay
Aug 2026·Shaastra · IITM

On the face of it.

The same developmental toolkit builds every vertebrate face - what differs between species is how much individuality it is allowed to express.

K. VijayRaghavan · Founding Chair
Engineering evolution is a high-stakes race between cure and chaos.
The Hindu · Sci-Tech
op-ed
Jul 2026·The Hindu · Sci-Tech

Engineering evolution is a high-stakes race between cure and chaos.

Gene drives and CRISPR now let us rewrite entire wild populations - a power that could end malaria or unravel an ecosystem, and one we must learn to govern before we release it.

K. VijayRaghavan · Founding Chair
Secret lives of leaves.
Shaastra · IITM
essay
Jul 2026·Shaastra · IITM

Secret lives of leaves.

From captured cyanobacteria to the chemistry of autumn - how leaves came to be, how they are built, and how they remade the atmosphere we breathe.

K. VijayRaghavan · Founding Chair
Size and the single cell.
Shaastra · IITM
essay
Jun 2026·Shaastra · IITM

Size and the single cell.

With cells, size is never just about dimensions - it is a record of the evolutionary history carried by every living thing.

K. VijayRaghavan · Founding Chair
Talk about evolution!
Shaastra · IITM
essay
May 2026·Shaastra · IITM

Talk about evolution!

Speech, thought and action co-evolved in a single tangle - and how they did is what makes the human story unique.

K. VijayRaghavan · Founding Chair
Branching out.
Shaastra · IITM
essay
Apr 2026·Shaastra · IITM

Branching out.

Trees, river deltas, lightning and cracks all branch by the same few rules - a shared grammar written across the natural world.

K. VijayRaghavan · Founding Chair
What lies beneath.
Shaastra · IITM
essay
Feb 2026·Shaastra · IITM

What lies beneath.

The roots of plants are subterranean architects - how they form and extract nutrients is a fascinating story of evolution.

K. VijayRaghavan · Founding Chair
Societies embrace gene therapy, but resist genetic change in crops.
The Hindu · Sci-Tech
op-ed
2026·The Hindu · Sci-Tech

Societies embrace gene therapy, but resist genetic change in crops.

Why a discipline tolerates one kind of genetic intervention but recoils from another - and what that means for India's bio-economy.

K. VijayRaghavan · Founding Chair
Aatmanirbhar Bharat: a science of patience, scale, and collaboration.
Economic Times · Opinion
op-ed
2026·Economic Times · Opinion

Aatmanirbhar Bharat: a science of patience, scale, and collaboration.

What it actually takes to translate Indian research into companies of consequence - written from inside the institution that is trying.

Prof. Bharat Bhasker · Director, IIMA
A whale of a puzzle.
Shaastra · IITM
essay
Nov 2025·Shaastra · IITM

A whale of a puzzle.

These gentle giants share their ancestry with hippos - and other species first discovered in a Himalayan sea.

K. VijayRaghavan · Founding Chair
A bridge (not) too far.
Shaastra · IITM
essay
Sep 2025·Shaastra · IITM

A bridge (not) too far.

Split-brain studies and brain-computer interfaces are re-establishing a fundamental connection that defines human function.

K. VijayRaghavan · Founding Chair
Mission insects.
Shaastra · IITM
essay
Nov 2024·Shaastra · IITM

Mission insects.

Insects keep our planet running. There is urgency to stem their decline - but it will take science and technology working in tandem.

K. VijayRaghavan · Founding Chair
Architect's plan and builder's craft.
Shaastra · IITM
essay
Jul 2024·Shaastra · IITM

Architect's plan and builder's craft.

Genetic influence is important, for sure - but cells, too, are critical to how we are made.

K. VijayRaghavan · Founding Chair
Long live the queen!
Shaastra · IITM
essay
Jun 2024·Shaastra · IITM

Long live the queen!

A queen ant manages a long lifespan despite overeating and being inactive. Researchers offer insights into her charmed life.

K. VijayRaghavan · Founding Chair
AcknowledgmentsEssays republished with thanks to Shaastra, IIT Madras. Op-eds courtesy The Hindu and The Economic Times. All rights remain with the original publishers.