Dr. VK Rai : Innovation Fails Not In the Lab, But In The Gap Before The Market

When Dr VK Rai speaks about innovation, he does not begin with startups or funding cycles. He begins with a question that has stayed with him for over three decades: Why does India operate world-class systems without always owning their design, evolution, and long-term capability?

That question first emerged when he was a young officer in the Indian Navy, standing inside the engine room of a warship. During his early sea training aboard INS Krishna, he recalls being struck by the fact that while Indian Navy personnel operated the systems with exceptional skill, most of the machinery was not designed in India. That moment stayed with him and shaped his long-term interest in indigenous capability building.

Today, as the CEO of IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, it continues to shape how he views innovation, institutions, and impact.

In this conversation, Rai reflects on his journey across defence, academia, public innovation systems, and entrepreneurship, and why he believes India’s next phase of growth must be institution-led and based on translational research.

Q: You come from a defence and engineering background. What led you into the innovation ecosystem?

My journey has always been driven by curiosity about advanced technologies. Early in my career, I realised that we were operating highly sophisticated machinery, but often without owning their underlying design, development or overhaul capabilities in India. This gap between being the user of technology versus building it stayed with me.

During my time in the Navy, I specialised in gas turbine engines, and served onboard Guided Missile Destroyers. Working closely with these systems reinforced how important it is for a country to be self-reliant in developing the capabilities required to support areas of national interest.

Over time, I came to believe that solving this issue requires more than technical expertise. It needs enablement and alignment between policy, funding, industry, and entrepreneurs. That is how my journey from defence gradually led to the broader innovation ecosystem, its design, policymaking and working on schemes to empower the enablers.

Q: You have worked across the Navy, IITs, public institutions and various Ministries. What did these experiences teach you about innovation?

My journey across the Indian Navy, Indian Institutes of Technology, and ministries like Railways, Defence and Science and Technology has reinforced a fundamental truth. Innovation is not a once-and-done event, it is a continuum of forces coming together. Therefore, innovation needs to be ingrained in our mindset and reflect in all our actions.

Research originates in academia, development is driven by startups and industry, but the real test lies in commercialisation. Globally, we see that a significant share of technologies stall in this “valley of death” between prototype and market, not due to lack of merit, but due to gaps in funding, validation, and market access.

My academic experience at IIT Kharagpur and IIM Ahmedabad further underscored that deep technical work must ultimately translate into real-world systems. Innovation creates value only when it is deployed at scale.

I therefore feel the real test of all scientific discoveries and research papers would be their ability to bridge the gap between mind to market or lab to real world applications. It requires structured support, institutional backing, and ecosystem alignment. Without that, even the most promising ideas risk remaining just that, ideas on paper.

Q: You often speak about the gap between prototype and market. Why is this stage so critical?

This stage is where implementation strategy is worked out and execution begins. Founders begin dealing with manufacturing, regulatory approvals, capital requirements, and customer validation. It is far more complex than early-stage ideation.

During my time working on policies and public funding initiatives, it became evidently clear that ventures usually struggle at this stage, not due to a lack of innovation, but owing to a lack of support systems. For example, while working with the Technology Development Board under the Department of Science and Technology, I worked closely with companies whose technologies were close to market readiness but required support to commercialise their innovations and scale-up manufacturing. That is why institutions play such a critical role.

Q: What specifically drew you to IIM Calcutta Innovation Park?

What stood out about IIM Calcutta Innovation Park (IIMCIP) was that it felt fundamentally different from many other innovation incubation platforms. IIMCIP works closely at the grassroots level, supporting entrepreneurs who may not necessarily come from formal business or management backgrounds and often need significant handholding to translate their ideas into viable ventures.

I was also drawn to its focus on social impact. Many of the entrepreneurs supported by IIMCIP are working in underserved geographies and addressing real-world challenges that often remain outside the mainstream startup narrative.

Additionally, a thought that stayed with me for a long time was this. If India can send rockets to the Moon at one of the most affordable costs in the world, and if institutions like ISRO represent the very best of Indian innovation, how do we ensure that the same spirit of innovation reaches a subsistence farmer in a remote village? To me, IIMCIP, in many ways, is that platform which can bridge the gap between advanced innovation and everyday societal needs, and that is why I elected to be a part of it.

Q: How do you define indigenous capability in today’s context?

Indigenous capability is often misunderstood as local manufacturing or reducing imports. In reality, it is much deeper. It involves owning the full lifecycle, design, development, testing, validation and continuous improvement, repair and overhaul etc, essentially a womb-to-tomb support.

Without this, we remain dependent, even if production happens locally. True capability means being able to build, adapt, and evolve technologies independently.

Q: As CEO, what are your immediate priorities for IIMCIP?

My focus is on strengthening the pathways from innovation to execution. This includes building stronger linkages with industry, aligning with public funding mechanisms, and helping founders move beyond pilots to scalable solutions.

Equally important is credibility and creating an impact at scale through an entrepreneurial mindset. Startups need access to customers, institutions, and ecosystems that trust them. IIMCIP can play a key role in enabling that trust.

Q: There is an increasing pressure on founders to scale quickly. How do you view this?

Speed is important, but direction is more important. Scaling without a strong foundation can create long-term challenges. And when ventures are built on strong fundamentals, they grow to be far more resilient over time.

Founders need to understand the framework they operate in, whether regulatory, operational, or market-driven. Sustainable growth comes from solving real problems effectively, not just scaling rapidly.

Q: Do you believe institutions will play a larger role in India’s innovation story going forward?

Yes, more than ever. While capital fuels innovation, institutions provide continuity, governance, and long-term direction. They are uniquely positioned to align academia, industry, government, and entrepreneurs into a cohesive system rather than fragmented efforts.

From my experience across defence, engineering, research, and public innovation programs, strong institutional frameworks do not just support startups, they enable repeatable, scalable innovation. As India’s ecosystem matures, institutions will be critical in moving from isolated success stories to sustained, system-driven impact.

Q: What excites you most about this role?

It is the opportunity to connect the ecosystem in a meaningful way. Research, startups, industry, and policy can no longer operate in silos. Real impact lies in bringing them together with intent and its effective implementation to fulfil the unmet needs of a common man.

This role allows me to enable that alignment and ensure innovation does not stop at ideas, but translates into outcomes at scale. Solutions that are relevant, deployable, and create tangible value.

Dr VK Rai’s journey may not follow the conventional startup playbook, but that is precisely what makes his perspective distinctive. In an ecosystem often driven by speed and valuation, his emphasis on systems, institutions, and long-term indigenous capability building offers a different lens, one that may prove critical as India looks to build innovation that endures, R&Ds that are translational and growth impact that penetrates to the bottom most strata of our society.