It was in Nice on Sunday that we put some substance to the handshakes. The Commerce and Industry Minister had a simple message for his French counterparts: come in and invest, design, and build here. In a time when there’s a lot of churn in both geopolitics and technology, he presented India as a place where you can scale for both home and abroad.
Goyal has a way of putting a fine point on market realities. He positioned India as the sensible option for French capital and know-how. ‘You have your frontier tech and your political headwinds,’ he noted. ‘In those moments, you look for someone you can trust. That is what we offer.’
A partnership shifting from projects to platforms
There is a new level to the India-France tie-up, Goyal would have you know. We’ve been called a 'special global strategic partnership‘ this year for a reason. You can see it in the way our leaders have been in each other’s company at the last two AI summits.
Think back to Paris in February 2025, when PM Modi and I were co-chairing the AI Action Summit. Fast forward to 2026 and President Macron was right beside us in India for the AI Impact Summit. Our time in Nice was just another nod to the kind of growth we want to see – one that is open and driven by new ideas.
India pitches scale and speed
This is the New India, where being innovative is just part of the fabric. The minister put a number on it: over 230,000 startups and a talent pool to match. It’s a market ready to take in and put to use what the French have to offer.
We brought 120 of the best to the table at Bharat Innovates under our Global Accelerator banner. This isn’t a venue for wishful thinking; it’s a pipeline for pilots and co-creation. The ones running the show made sure to present it as a matter of execution.
What we’re asking of French companies
Goyal didn’t mince words. ‘I want you to make some good partnerships with us,’ he told them. Then he laid it out: ‘Come to India. Put your money here. Design, innovate and manufacture on our soil.’
If you want to get to the bottom line, here is what we are looking for:
– Put your heads together with Indian startups on deep-tech
– Make in India, for India and for export
– Laying the groundwork for R&D and education ties that will last
Supply chain and manufacturing implications
This is more than the usual form of cooperation. Goyal is opening the door for you to be part of the manufacturing side of things, with a domestic market large enough to be a testbed for your products in the wider supply chain.
He sees India as an anchor, young and skilled, and the goal is to 'make of us the world's innovation partner in a very concrete way.’ For a French firm that has to be as resilient as it is ambitious, it is a mix of cost, capability and the chance to co-innovate.
What comes next
All of this is the crux of the 2026 India-France Year of Innovation. As we move along, you can expect to see more of a joint effort in the areas of research and the latest in technology.
The event in Nice made it clear: we are done with the talk and moving on to the hard stuff. If you are up for it, we can put in place some solid, export-ready platforms, not just a few one-off pilots.
