As 2025 concluded, India’s technology and industrial ecosystem is entering a decisive phase, marked by convergence across robotics, automation, clean mobility, advanced manufacturing, gaming infrastructure, and sustainable energy. From the rise of physical AI and intelligent robotics to the scaling of electric mobility, precision manufacturing, and clean fuels, the year reflected a shift from experimentation to execution. Industry leaders point to growing emphasis on reliability, safety, productivity, and sustainability as technologies move closer to real-world deployment. Looking ahead to 2026, the focus sharpens on large-scale adoption, global competitiveness, and responsible innovation—positioning India not just as a market, but as a creator of next-generation industrial systems.
Below are some of the quotes from industry leaders, reflecting on the key shifts of 2025 and outlining expectations for how technology, manufacturing, mobility, energy, and automation will evolve in 2026.
Mr. Rajendra Velagapudi, CEO & MD, Cyient DLM Limited
“2025 was a year of convergence, manufacturing became smarter, EMS became more integrated, and India emerged as a reliable hub for high-complexity production. The future will belong to companies that combine digital intelligence, engineering depth, compliance strength and global agility. Cyient DLM stands at the intersection of all these forces, representing the new shape of advanced manufacturing and EMS in India.”
Mr. Raviteja Chivukula, Co-founder, CEO and Co-CTO of Perceptyne Robots
“2025 has been a defining year for Robotics and Physical AI. The industry witnessed a surge of new entrants globally- some solving for just the hardware layer, a few just solving the intelligence layer and very few vertically integrating and solving both the layers. This momentum is reflected in the rapid growth of the global AI in Robotics market. While there have been no major industry deployments of humanoid robots yet, US market alone is predicted to have 40K humanoid Robots deployment by 2030 and 8 million by 2040 (Morgan Stanley Research , Humanoids: Investment Implications of Embodied AI).
We are seeing a clear shift in demand from traditional industrial robots to intelligent AI-powered human-like Robots that can understand their environment and perform complex variable tasks- particularly in high-mix production environments. Sectors such as electronics, automotive, and semiconductor manufacturing are increasingly exploring AI-powered robots to manage repetitive, labour- intensive work and improve quality and productivity. Looking ahead to 2026, the focus will be on manifesting fancy demos into actual factory floor deployments across industries with great emphasis on reliability, safety, quality and productivity improvements.”
Mr. Prateek Gupta, Tech Founder & Gaming Growth Strategist, Founder – Blue Ivory Business Solutions (RNGx.gg) and Co-Founder, Fortumax Technologies (Gamio)
“2025 proved that the Indian gaming industry is not fragile, it’s evolving. The shift towards AI-driven production and scalable, modular gaming infrastructure has made teams more efficient, more global, and more innovation-focused. As we move into 2026, AI-native development, plug-and-play infrastructure, and global collaboration—especially across the UAE and Southeast Asia, will define how Indian studios build, scale, and compete. India’s talent is now ready to compete globally, not just participate, and the coming year will be about acceleration, expansion, and long-term, responsible growth.”
Rear Admiral R. Sreenivas, VSM (Retd.), Chief Executive Officer, Bondada Group
“2025 made it clear that the future of infrastructure will be judged not only by what is built, but by its sustainability and the impact it has on society and the environment. It calls for a higher degree of application of thought, wisdom, commitment, transparency, and accountability by all the stakeholders. Thoughtful and professionally sound decision-making, ethical conduct, rigorous safety and quality culture, and social inclusion are the new norms and essentials to the sector’s license to grow.
Looking towards 2026, sustainability must be embedded into every project lifecycle from conceptualization, responsible sourcing, and environmental impact to community partnership and value addition (to all sections), including skill development across all levels of manpower. Technology will empower smarter compliance, more efficient resource use, and improved stakeholder trust. At the centre of progress lies a simple principle: “infrastructure should improve lives.” The future will belong to organisations that embrace innovation with a conscience, ensuring shared growth, climate consciousness, and anchored in the well-being of the communities they serve.”
Mr. Prateek Jain, Co-Founder & COO, Addverb
“The year 2025 marked a clear inflection point for India’s robotics, automation, and advanced manufacturing ecosystem. Enhanced policy congruity, extensive manufacturing base and increased trust in India as an engineering powerhouse have made the country a formidable contender in smart automation. The manufacturing priorities are now shifting towards critical technologies like semiconductors, facilitating the production of equipment with high precision, environments with contamination under control, as well as globally competitive supply chains. This integration is providing the Indian manufacturers with significant entry points into the multifaceted global value chains.
At the same time, other sectors such as renewable energy are moving towards advanced automation, solidifying robotics and artificial intelligence as the core technologies in industries. In the supply chain, 2025 was a decisive move towards AI-based, software-coordinated systems that are fast, accurate, and scale-resilient. These systems are redefining fulfilment by improving operational efficiency, improving worker safety and making supply chains responsive to demand.
Robotics and automation will continue to influence the design and operation of factories and warehouses in 2026. The new humanoid technologies, physical AI, intelligent robots, and collaborative systems will become the center of creating manufacturing ecosystems that can be flexible, human-centric, and globally competitive.This next phase will define India’s role not just as a manufacturing hub, but as a leader in the global automation landscape.”
Dr. S. Sriram, Director, Mitsubishi Electric India
“India’s manufacturing landscape has undergone substantial change in the past one year. The narrative from building manufacturing capacity has significantly shifted to building capacity with precision. Automation has transformed the manufacturing sector by focusing on quality, reliability & international competitiveness.
In 2025, automation with digital control & data driven decision making systems was critical for ensuring accuracy, energy efficiency through stable operations on production floors and throughout. Meanwhile, as electronics, semiconductors, energy and other industries continue to grow rapidly, adopting automation technologies will further benefit the manufacturing industry in India.
Additionally, further adoption of digital transformation based industrial automation will eventually lead to achieving India’s sustainability goals and end-to-end process control.
It is evident that an ecosystem is emerging around this convergence as providers of technology and automation expand their partnerships with manufacturers and academia to create systems that support both, greater longevity and consistency of performance rather than production outputs.
Looking towards 2026, the combined power of automation, digital intelligence and precision engineering is poised to redefine the next generation of industrial growth and development.”
Mr. Samrath S Kochar, Founder and CEO at Trontek
“By 2026, India’s mobility story will be shaped by stronger EV policies, better batteries like sodium-ion, and faster adoption of electric fleets with swappable energy solutions. For the industry, this is the time to move from trials to full-scale action—by making more parts locally, reusing batteries responsibly, and investing in new technologies. Companies that plan ahead and innovate will lead India’s clean mobility future.”
Mr. Muthu Subramanian, MD & General Manager, YUMA ENERGY
In 2025, battery swapping evolved into mission-critical infrastructure, transforming last-mile mobility with refuel-like reliability, intelligent lifecycle management, and data-driven operations. With over 30 million swaps, Yuma advanced the sector through real-time platforms like Satori and Nova, next-gen batteries, and predictive diagnostics that pushed network uptime to 99.8% and made battery health increasingly predictable. The ecosystem matured with chemistry-agnostic platforms, AI-led diagnostics, and strong momentum toward a circular battery economy, supported by clearer national policies and growing rider trust. As we look to 2026, we expect a watershed year marked by rapid electrification of last-mile fleets, interoperable high-density swap networks becoming mainstream, deeper OEM–infrastructure collaboration, and declining cost-per-swap through multi-life batteries—propelling India from early adoption to true mass-scale electrification.
Mr. Amit Gupta, Co-founder and CEO, Yulu
“2025 marked a turning point for new mobility in India. Years of deliberate investment by players like Yulu — in purpose-built vehicles, battery infrastructure, robust technology platforms and deep partnerships — are now translating into real impact on the ground. Hyperlocal mobility is becoming safer, smarter and more affordable, unlocking access and efficiency at scale.
Looking ahead to 2026, the focus will shift decisively toward sustainable and profitable growth. As businesses across sectors prioritise green logistics, cleaner and more socially responsible mobility solutions will move from the margins to the mainstream, playing a critical role in India’s long-term, sustainable growth journey.”
Mr. Varun Puri, Managing Director, Green Power International
“2025 witnessed a major shift in India’s clean energy journey as it moved firmly from pilot projects to commercial implementation. The year 2026 will be about the clean fuels’ transformation, from being used as alternatives to becoming widely used primary energy sources. This change will be driven by India’s need to reinforce energy security, reduce its reliance on fuel imports, enhance air quality, and maintain its commitment to net-zero emissions.
India has the capacity to develop a continuous source of clean energy due to the availability of abundant resources. Currently, we produce more than 2,000 million tonnes of biomass waste. Stronger state-level incentives and the SATAT program’s goal of 15 MTPA of CBG by 2030 are increasing project bankability and drawing in more private sector involvement. Up to 7,000 litres of diesel can be replaced daily by a single mid-sized CBG plant, which can cut emissions by up to 90%.
The year 2025 was also marked by technological advancements in the renewable energy sector, which are expected to expedite the production of clean energy at a scale to meet the demand of the growing population. In India’s pursuit to meet the Net Zero goals and address the mounting challenge of degrading air quality, gas-based gensets will also have a pivotal role to play. Replacing diesel-based gensets with gas ones can significantly reduce the level of harmful pollutants present in the air, engulfing the entire country in this season.
The year laid a strong foundation for scale, collaboration, and financing, setting the stage for 2026 to emerge as a true inflection point where clean fuels move firmly into the mainstream and begin to define the next phase of India’s energy transition.”
