Why Bureaucracy is India’s Biggest Barrier to Innovation

Among the disruptive technologies of the past decade, cryptocurrency was India's lone chance to lead in product innovation on the global stage. Yet, we squandered it.

In everything else—AI, machine learning, robotics, EVs, deep tech—we remain laggards, mere service providers to the world as we’ve been for decades. But crypto was different. It offered a rare opportunity for India to set the pace.

That opportunity was bulldozed by bureaucracy. Babus ensured that crypto founders fled to Dubai, Singapore, and beyond.

While some wrongdoings by a few players maybhave deserved scrutiny, suffocating the entire industry was a blunt and regressive response.

Someday, perhaps, there will be honest introspection. Until then, India's dreams of tech leadership remain just that—dreams.