TechSparks 2026 grand finale: Intel, Jhunjhunwala, Food Pharmer on India’s rise

TechSparks 2026 grand finale highlighted India's potential to become a technology leader. The summit brought together entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and aspiring founders to discuss how India can move from consuming technology to building it. Experts emphasized the importance of education, computing infrastructure, and building indigenous solutions.

Sushma Boppana, CEO of Sri Chaitanya Group, stressed that India must focus on holistic student development beyond academic success. She highlighted the need to build resilience, engagement, and accountability, which are more important than traditional test scores. Santhosh Viswanathan, Intel's VP and Managing Director, pointed out India's compute deficit and the potential for AI to personalize learning based on students' interests.

Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IIT Madras' Institute Professor, emphasized India's talent for technology development. He criticized the current engineering curriculum for not emphasizing practical application and called for a curriculum overhaul to foster innovation. He also highlighted the country's ability to develop all technologies but its reliance on imports for products. He proposed using edge computing to leverage compact, retrained open-weight models on affordable devices.

The summit concluded with a conversation on trust, led by Food Pharmer Revant Himatsingka. Himatsingka shared his journey of questioning industry norms after turning down lucrative brand deals to launch Only What's Needed (OWN). He advocated for transparency in nutrition labels, offering a comprehensive view of ingredients and their percentages. Himatsingka urged founders to break rules, question industry practices, and build a reputation based on authenticity and honesty.