States should replace fragmented tech plans with focused strategic blueprints

While well-intentioned, this fragmented and undifferentiated approach often yields limited returns and fails to establish clear leadership or competitive differentiation.

Transitioning from traditional IT plans to comprehensive and integrated tech blueprints is crucial for states to effectively capitalize on emerging opportunities and attract higher tech investments.

Why the need for change now? A new approach is becoming essential because technology is becoming the backbone of growth, productivity and competitiveness across all sectors, rather than functioning as a standalone industry.

To fully harness the potential of emerging technologies, states must move beyond siloed and generic IT initiatives and adopt integrated, sector-aligned tech blueprints.

This strategic shift is crucial for maximizing economic growth, creating future-ready jobs, enhancing industrial competitiveness, improving public service delivery, ensuring regional and national security and attracting more investment.

The NITI Frontier Tech Hub actively collaborates with interested states to facilitate this essential shift. Here are key insights from our experience to help create a blueprint for a state-level tech transformation:

Start with problems or opportunities, not technologies: Begin by identifying the core challenges or unique opportunities within the state, leveraging inherent regional strengths.

For example, Odisha’s abundance of critical minerals (bauxite, chromite, rare earths, graphite) offers a tremendous unique advantage.

A focused tech blueprint that unlocks value across the entire mineral value chain—from extraction to advanced material manufacturing—will deliver far greater returns than a generic tech policy would.

Develop relevant talent benchmarked to top global standards: Continuing with the Odisha example, setting a goal to become a global leader in green metals and advanced materials necessitates identifying the skills required and collaborating with industry and academia to create world-class curricula and training programmes benchmarked against international standards.

This targeted talent strategy is the most effective way to attract and anchor new tech ecosystems and investments.

Design a programme aligned with strategic goals: Instead of investments to set up generic startup accelerators or AI cities, Odisha’s blueprint could envision creating India’s first tech-mineral park dedicated to critical mineral processing and advanced materials R&D for sectors like electric vehicles, solar technology, aerospace and semiconductors.

Establishing a Centre of Excellence for Ethical Extraction and Value Addition would underscore the state’s commitment to sustainable development. Such clear and outcome-oriented strategies foster robust end-to-end ecosystems, enabling states to nurture national champions and encourage in-depth R&D and innovation in focus sectors.

Build comprehensive ecosystems for supply chain resilience: Develop incentive structures and regulatory frameworks to attract leading domestic and global companies to establish operations close to resources, enhancing the overall ecosystem.

This approach surpasses traditional GCC or startup initiatives by creating highly differentiated and well integrated industrial hubs.

Establish shared infrastructure to accelerate innovation: Provide sector-specific infrastructure such as data lakes, vertical models, computing resources and testing labs to support innovation. Targeted initiatives to enable R&D in priority areas are a better use of the state’s investment funds.

Channelize incentives towards R&D and innovation commercialization: Move beyond traditional incentives, such as land grants, and adopt outcome-based incentives that specifically encourage R&D and the commercialization of innovation within priority sectors. This will help states move up the value chain.

Tailored sectoral regulation: Implement balanced regulatory frameworks designed to support ethical innovation in specific priority areas rather than generic, one-size-fits-all policies.

Similarly, Madhya Pradesh (MP) has an attractive opportunity to adopt a differentiated, agritech-led tech strategy. As one of India’s largest producers of soybeans and pulses—and a horticulture leader—the state anchors a ₹20,000-crore soy processing ecosystem and fuels a rapidly expanding food-processing industry.

Its rich agro-climatic diversity, strong research and innovation base—including the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s national soybean institute—and one of the highest densities of farmer producer organizations in the country position it uniquely to deploy scalable, end-to-end tech solutions.

A focused blueprint could prioritize the development of a full-stack precision agriculture ecosystem—from climate-resilient seed R&D to real-time field intelligence, traceable supply chains and digital marketplaces—and turn MP into a hub for agritech and food innovation.

By aligning its tech strategy with these sectoral strengths, MP could not only drive inclusive rural growth and national food security, but also carve a leadership position in the global agri-value chain, attracting startups, GCCs and impact investors alike.

These blueprints would be effective by virtue of their emphasis on outcome-driven problem statements that integrate multiple technologies for optimal results.

They enable states to set themselves apart, nurture world-class talent, foster cutting-edge research and catalyse comprehensive innovation ecosystems. Investments will follow.

Moreover, holistic tech blueprints promote collaboration between public entities, private sector firms, academia and startups, fuelling innovation, accelerating market transitions and cultivating vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems. These partnerships can enhance the competitiveness and resilience of states.

Finally, by aligning tech blueprints with national priorities and global trends, states can strategically position themselves within the global economic landscape. Envision every Indian state becoming a global hub in fields like AI-led drug discovery, clean energy, synthetic materials, etc.

The collective power of innovation across these strategic imperatives is immense. When states leverage technology for differentiated growth, India’s transformation into a frontier tech nation would become unstoppable.

The authors are, respectively, CEO and distinguished fellow, Niti Aayog.