Romal Shetty, CEO Deloitte South Asia, speaks at ‘TiECon Mangaluru 2026’ in Mangaluru on Friday.
| Photo Credit:
H S Manjunath
Romal Shetty, CEO of Deloitte South Asia, has stressed the need to innovate for ‘Bharat’ for India to become a prosperous nation.
In a fireside chat with Rohith Bhat, President of TiE Mangaluru at the ‘TiECon Mangaluru 2026’ in Mangaluru on Friday, Shetty said: “You have to innovate for Bharat. That is going to be a big pyramid and you would have more than 400-500 million people. So, it is not necessary that you have to only look outside India.”
It is necessary for the 100-200 cities to become successful for the country to become a prosperous nation. Other cities should also become successful along with metros, he said.
Touching upon the session’s theme ‘India at 2047: The Trillion Dollar Opportunity’, he said India is a fast growing economy, and will continue to be the fastest growing economy for some time.
Stating that it will become the number 3 economy by 2030, he added that it will go ahead of Germany. The median age in India is still very young at 29 years. The per capita income currently at $2,600 will probably go to $4,000.
To achieve this, Shetty stressed on the need to focus on Research and Development (R&D) and innovation. R&D spend in India is still low at 0.4 per cent when compared to China or Korea. There is a need to build more platforms and products. Bringing a lot of academia into the into the innovation front is very critical in this matter, he said.
Academia should be closely aligned with corporates and start-ups. To achieve this, policymakers and other stakeholders should work together.
He urged the entrepreneurs in Mangaluru-Udupi-Manipal region, popularly known as ‘Silicon Beach of India’, to look for hidden gems and work on them — areas such as medical technology, fintech, etc. Mangaluru region has both medical and engineering talents, he said.
Discussions at the fireside chat described the roadmap for positioning Mangaluru as a strong contender for future GCC expansions, and attracting large data centres and to scaling up startup ecosystems as ambitious and achievable. Shetty felt that Deloitte’s presence here is only a matter of time.
Published on January 16, 2026
