Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France next week will coincide with Bharat Innovates 2026, a major showcase of India’s deeptech startups, research institutions and innovation ecosystem that is set to take place in Nice from June 14 to 16. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, PM Modi will visit France and Slovakia from June 13 to 18. During the France leg of the trip, Bharat Innovates 2026 is scheduled to bring together 120 Indian deeptech startups, leading academic institutions, investors, policymakers and industry leaders as part of the India-France Year of Innovation. The event’s agenda states that its inaugural session will be held in the presence of Prime Minister Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron, underlining the importance both countries are placing on innovation, technology partnerships and research collaboration. Organisers describe Bharat Innovates as a global platform designed to connect Indian innovation with international investors, institutions and markets, while creating opportunities for research partnerships, technology development and commercialisation. Against the backdrop of PM Modi’s France visit, the event offers a window into how India is seeking to project its growing innovation ecosystem internationally, using higher education, scientific research and entrepreneurship as key pillars of engagement with Europe. The initiative is a government programme with a deliberately broad ambition. “It is designed as a global accelerator for innovations from Indian Higher Education Institutions, thereby, building a long-term collaboration bridge between India’s innovation ecosystem and global stakeholders,” according to Bharat Innovates site. This is not just a trade fair for startups. It is an attempt to connect science, capital and policy across borders, with the Ministry of Education framing it as a national programme and the nodal institute listed as IIT Bombay. The event is explicitly about turning research into deployable technology. The maiden edition will take India’s top 120 deeptech startups to Nice, France, “to catalyse pilots, co-development, investments, research partnerships, manufacturing and market access.” Deeptech here means science-heavy ventures, often built on long research cycles and specialised engineering rather than quick consumer app models. The platform is therefore trying to move promising work from laboratories and incubators into commercial and institutional use, which is where many innovation systems succeed or fail. The opening day is the centre of gravity, with an inaugural session held in the presence of PM Modi and President Macron. The agenda shows an opening keynote by N. R. Narayana Murthy, followed by a session titled “AI for Global Good: Building a Corridor for Trusted, Inclusive and Scalable AI” with Kris Gopalakrishnan, Rajan Anandan, Sandeep Bakshi and Henri Verdier. Later sessions include “India & Europe: DeepTech Without Borders”, a mooted MoU exchange ceremony and a
