At IIT Delhi’s flagship FITT FORWARD 2026, Kapur calls for stronger industry-academia collaboration to develop future-ready talent and translate research into deployable solutions
NEW DELHI (India CSR): Sona Comstar, a leading mobility technology company, highlighted the growing importance of advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, robotics and physical AI in shaping the future of Indian manufacturing and mobility at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.
Priya Kapur, Director and CSR Chairperson, Sona Comstar, participated in the panel discussion titled “Manufacturing Tech & Semiconductors: Can India Build What the World Needs Next?” The session examined India’s potential to develop globally competitive technologies, strengthen domestic capabilities and emerge as a leader in advanced manufacturing.
During the discussion, Kapur called for deeper collaboration between industry and academia to translate India’s strong talent base into future-ready skills and commercially deployable technologies. She noted that industry can bring real-world engineering challenges, manufacturing insights and use cases, while institutions such as IIT Delhi contribute deep-technology research, specialised laboratories and multidisciplinary expertise.
“Sona Comstar’s technology focus spans advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, robotics, physical AI and the broader future of mobility. Strong industry-academia partnerships can connect India’s talent and research capabilities with real-world engineering challenges, enabling us to develop solutions that are relevant, scalable and globally competitive,” said Kapur.
She added that the next phase of India’s manufacturing growth must be driven not only by greater capacity, but also by stronger technological capabilities, indigenous intellectual property and the ability to take innovation from the laboratory to the factory floor.
Through its Samridh Bharat CSR Programme, Sona Comstar works with the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer at IIT Delhi and IIMA Ventures, IIM Ahmedabad’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre, to support technology-led entrepreneurship and research. These combined initiatives help incubate and develop innovation-driven start-ups and projects, including mobility solutions aimed at reducing dependence on fossil fuels and technologies that address environmental challenges such as air pollution and stubble burning.
A key component under this initiative is the Innovation in Mobility Programme, implemented with FITT at IIT Delhi. Initiated in 2020, the programme supports deep-tech start-ups working across electric mobility, batteries, motors, hydrogen, energy storage, advanced materials and clean manufacturing. It has evolved from providing early-stage research and development support into an ecosystem-building platform that combines grants, technical incubation, market linkages and access to IIT Delhi’s research infrastructure.
The supported start-ups have advanced from prototype development towards market readiness, with innovations including AI-enabled battery systems, sodium-ion batteries, rare-earth-free motors, hydrogen technologies and mobile electric vehicle charging solutions.
During the panel discussion, Kapur also underscored the need to create a sustainable innovation ecosystem through industry-led research programmes, shared testing infrastructure and access to specialised laboratories. Such partnerships can help reduce the time required to validate emerging technologies and accelerate their adoption across manufacturing and mobility.
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