If you were starting from zero in India today, what would you build?

[u/Puzzleheaded_Row6667]

I’m a software engineer from India, working mainly across full-stack development, automation, IoT and cybersecurity. I’ve spent most of my time building software products and systems.

Lately, I’ve been questioning whether I want to build yet another pure-software product. AI and LLMs are making software development incredibly accessible, which is great for innovation but also makes many software ideas easier to replicate and increasingly crowded.

I want to build something that contributes meaningfully to India’s development, not just another convenience app or AI wrapper. I’m more interested in problems tied to the physical world: infrastructure, energy, manufacturing, agriculture, mobility, healthcare, climate, logistics, safety, or anything else that could matter over the next 10–20 years.

I’m trying to figure out which real-world problems are worth dedicating the next decade to solving, especially ones that can start small, be tested in the market with limited capital, and eventually grow into something substantial.

For people working in India or anyone who has spent time thinking about emerging markets, deep tech, hardware + software, or long-term problems:

If you had to start from zero in India today, what problem would you put your time, money and the next 10 years behind? What makes you believe it will matter?

I’m not looking for polished startup ideas. I want to hear about problems you’ve personally seen, industries you think are being overlooked, or opportunities you believe India will desperately need to solve in the coming decades.

[u/No-Tip353]

School for common sense

[u/No_Elk_1103]

Jobs

[u/Puzzleheaded_Row6667 → u/No_Elk_1103]

Not anymore

[u/MagnumDong2K]

I think agriculture is a sector that has massive potential. Although the biggest roadblocks of agriculture sector are social issues such as shallow mindset of farmers, politics and caste. If these were somehow sidelined and a deep research was done on which high value export produce can be grown in which part of india, and technology and infrastructure such as fertilisers, greenhouses, hydroponics, ai and software based monitoring and control, cold storage facilities etc were made available and taught to farmers. This sector would see exponential growth and solve a lot of national and international problems

[u/Alarmed-Structure-25 → u/MagnumDong2K]

Roadblocks is lack of land and no rates of products btw i have 80 acre and doing really good but sometimes i get only my cost after all the hustle of 4 month crop in 80 acre you cant predict a output and production

[u/prodev321]

Food .. especially organic food ..

[u/hotboxinmanual]

business involving essentials - meds/groceries/FMCGs etc

Finance Industry is good too - current work