Tiruchi, long known as a hub of heavy engineering and fabrication industries, is slowly reinventing itself in a technology avatar as many deep tech start-ups in the field have begun to make their presence felt in the wider marketplace.

Deep tech refers to ventures that build the underlying technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, robotics, biotechnology, and advanced material, rather than applications assembled on top of existing platforms.

“Tamil Nadu’s technology story in the early 2000s was almost entirely one of IT services and offshore delivery. Deep tech has fundamentally altered the relationship between city tier and opportunity in ways that earlier technology waves did not. Cloud infrastructure, modern AI tooling, and distributed work mean that a team building serious technology in Tiruchi operates with no structural disadvantage relative to one in Bengaluru or Chennai,” Pagutharivu Muthusamy, CEO and co-founder of iAgami Technologies, told The Hindu.

“The delta region’s foundational assets are already in place. National Institute of Technology – Tiruchi (NIT-T), the Indian Institute of Information Technology – Tiruchi, the Indian Institute of Management - Tiruchi, the Bharathidasan University and approximately 140 colleges in the region produce close to 35,000 graduates annually. TREC-STEP at NIT-T established in 1986 was among India’s earliest technology business incubators. My first start-up, SurfaceInsight Technologies, was conceived and launched out of TREC-STEP in April 2018. So the infrastructure for serious deep tech entrepreneurship in Tiruchi is not new. It has been producing founders for nearly four decades,” Mr. Muthusamy said.

Industry observers said that more could be done to bridge the academia-industry gap.

“If start-up founders and the government authorities in Tiruchi and the delta region create an ecosystem where fresh graduates can be both employed and upskilled simultaneously, the city could easily transform itself into a Deep Tech hub,” said G.B. Ramprakash, chairman and managing director, Enixs Technology.

Enixs Technology, based in Vazhavanthankottai, is an industrial research and development company that makes electronic products used by almost all the big research organisations and universities across India.

NIT-T is mentoring several student-faculty start-ups through its Centre for Entrepreneurship Development and Incubation (CEDI). Among these is a start-up led by C. Geetha, assistant professor, Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering, to develop a microwave hyperthermia applicator for cancer treatment with a grant of ₹6 lakh from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Hyperthermia uses targeted heat to damage and destroy cancer cells or make them more sensitive to radiation and chemotherapy. “At present, most of the treatment devices used in hospitals are imported. We want to research and design an indigenous product that will be useful for cancer therapy,” said Ms. Geetha.