The R&D catalyst PhD scholars at IITs, being picked up by top corporates with multi-crore salary packages, prove that India’s research ecosystem is finally beginning to mature and flourish

Blitz Bureau

NEW DELHI: For decades, the Indian corporate landscape followed a predictable pattern: recruit fresh engineering graduates for service-oriented roles and leave high-end research and development (R&D) to global headquarters in the West. A PhD was often viewed as an “over-qualification” that narrowed one’s job prospects to academia.

However, as of early 2026, a seismic shift has occurred. Recent placement reports from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) show that PhD scholars are now the most sought-after cohort for “deep tech” roles, with some receiving annual packages exceeding Rs 1 crore. This transition signals that India is moving from being the world’s “back office” to becoming its “laboratory.”

While India’s R&D spending has doubled in absolute terms over the last decade, it remains a smaller fraction of GDP compared to global leaders. Despite a lower “researchers per million” count, India’s sheer population means it produces over 30,000 PhDs annually. However, the private sector contribution in India has crossed 40 per cent, a key indicator of a maturing technical system. This figure is up from 30 per cent a few years ago, closing the gap with the US and China where private industry drives 70 per cent of research.

Previously, the “market value” of a PhD was low because Indian industry was largely “incremental”— improving existing products. Today, it is “disruptive.”

The anatomy of the shift: From service to discovery
The demand for IIT PhDs is driven by the collapse of the “hire and train” model for complex technologies. While a B Tech graduate can be trained to write code, they often lack the foundational depth required for more high-end things such as:

* Semiconductor design: Building fabrication plants requires material science and VLSI expertise only found at the doctoral level.

* Generative AI: Moving beyond using Application Programming Interface or APIs to building sovereign foundational models requires deep mathematics and neural network research.
* Biotechnology: India’s bio-economy, projected to reach $150 billion by 2026, demands PhDs in bioinformatics and cell therapy.

Why the market value of PhDs flipped
Previously, the “market value” of a PhD was low because Indian industry was largely “incremental”— improving existing products. Today, it is “disruptive.”

* Global Capability Centres (GCCs): Over 1,600 multinational GCCs in India have evolved. They are no longer doing support work; they are filing global patents from Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

* The “Anusandhan” factor: The establishment of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) with a Rs 50,000 crore outlay has bridged the industry-academia gap, incentivising companies to co-fund PhD research.
* Reverse brain drain: High domestic salaries and world-class labs at IITs mean top talent is staying. In 2025, IIT Delhi saw a 33 per cent surge in Pre-Placement Offers (PPOs) specifically for research-heavy roles.

Global best practices
The Indian system is rapidly adopting “Global Best Practices” seen in the US and South Korea:
* Interdisciplinary research: Following the MIT and Stanford model, IITs now allow PhDs to take coursework across departments (e.g., a Mechanical Engineer studying AI for fluid dynamics).

* Professor of Practice: India has introduced a category where industry veterans teach at IITs, ensuring research isn’t just theoretical.

* Start-up incubation: Unlike the 1990s, a PhD today is a precursor to a deep-tech start-up. India now boasts over 100 “Soonicorns” (Soon-to-be-Unicorns) founded by PhDs in sectors like Spacetech and Quantum Computing.

While the overall trend is positive, India still lags in Researcher Density compared to Singapore or Malaysia. Our “Knowledge Paradox” remains: We produce massive volumes of research, but the conversion into high-value manufacturing is still in its infancy.

To reach the maturity levels of China (which focuses on scale) or the UK (which focuses on high-end discovery), India needs to:

* Increase GERD to 1.5 per cent of GDP by 2030.

* Formalise Industrial PhDs: Where a student spends 50 per cent of their time in a corporate lab, a practice common in Germany.

* Diversify beyond IITs: The demand is right now concentrated in the top 10 per cent of institutions; the “maturity” will be complete when tier-2 university PhDs are equally sought after.

The “patent explosion”
India filed over 68,000 patents in 2024-25, a three-fold increase from five years prior. Crucially, the share of domestic applicants has overtaken foreign applicants. This “IP-first” mindset is what makes a PhD valuable — they are the only ones trained to navigate the “white space” of unknown technology where patents are born.
In the 2025-26 placement season, IIT Kharagpur and IIT Delhi reported a surge in corporate R&D offers. For the first time, multiple PhD scholars received offers exceeding Rs 1 crore ($120,000+), traditionally reserved for top-tier MBA or B Tech graduates. Companies like Google, Samsung, Qualcomm, and Denso are no longer hiring PhDs just for “consulting” but for core intellectual property (IP) creation.