From Nice to Paris, PM Modi's France visit puts India's deeptech ambitions in focus at Bharat Innovates and VivaTech

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France this week will place technology and startups at the centre of India’s diplomacy, as New Delhi looks to showcase itself not just as a large digital market, but as a builder of deeptech products for the world.

Modi will travel to France as part of a wider Europe visit from June 13 to 18, which also includes Slovakia and the G7 Summit in Evian. But the technology leg of the trip will be closely watched.

In Nice, Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron will jointly inaugurate Bharat Innovates 2026, a new platform that brings together Indian deep-tech startups, investors, universities, and research institutions. During his visit, the prime minister will also attend VivaTech in Paris, Europe’s largest technology and startup event.

What is Bharat Innovates and why it matters

Bharat Innovates 2026, being held in Nice from June 14 to 16, is positioned as a platform to connect India’s innovation ecosystem with global investors, corporates, universities and research institutions.

The event will feature more than 120 Indian deep-tech startups across 13 sectors including artificial intelligence, semiconductors, space and defence, healthcare, biotechnology, energy, climate technology, quantum, advanced materials and next-generation communications.

The startup line-up reflects how India’s technology story has widened beyond software services and consumer internet. Agnikul Cosmos, which is building small satellite launch vehicles powered by 3D-printed rocket engines, will be part of the cohort. So will Dhruva Space and GalaxEye, which represent India’s growing private space sector.

In AI, the list includes Sarvam AI, which is building foundation models and speech AI for Indian languages, and Avataar.ai, which works on agentic AI platforms for enterprises. Qure.ai, known for AI-powered diagnostic tools, will be among the healthtech names at the event.

The semiconductor presence is also notable. Agnit Semiconductors, India’s first GaN RF semiconductor company, and BigEndian Semiconductors, which is working on AI vision chips and hardware security, are among the participants. Quantum and cybersecurity startups such as QpiAI and QNu Labs will also be present.

India's AI Country Partner status at VivaTech

Four days after Bharat Innovates closes, Modi will be in Paris on June 18 for VivaTech 2026. India holds the newly created designation of AI Country Partner for this edition, a recognition of the deepening Franco-Indian partnership in technology and of India's emergence as a significant voice in global AI governance. The Indian pavilion is also expected to be one of the largest at the summit.

Modi is expected to present India's MANAV framework for AI governance and outline the country's approach to balancing innovation, inclusion and responsible deployment of artificial intelligence.

The event will feature some of the biggest names in technology, including Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, Meta chief AI scientist Yann LeCun, Mistral AI co-founder Arthur Mensch, OpenAI chief financial officer Sarah Friar, Anthropic chief product officer Mike Krieger and Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf.

For Europe, India represents one of the world's largest technology markets and talent pools. For India, Europe offers access to advanced research ecosystems, pools of capital and strategic manufacturing partnerships.