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Speaking at the Technology Development Board's 30th Foundation Day, the Union Minister for Science & Technology called for wider outreach on the Rs 1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund so that eligible applicants understand its purpose and process.
He said thousands of applications are being received, including from applicants who appear to treat the Fund as a conventional loan facility or an ordinary source of finance, which it is not.
The RDI Fund supports projects at Technology Readiness Level 4 and above, and the Technology Development Board is the first to roll out proposals under it.
The Minister said start-ups are no longer concentrated in Bengaluru or Hyderabad — more than 50 per cent now come from smaller towns — and pressed for private-sector participation of the kind already opened up in space, biotechnology and the nuclear sector.
He framed TDB's next thirty years around building global technology champions from India, after a first thirty spent bridging the laboratory and the market.
Spur a private-sector-driven research and development ecosystem by bridging the financing gap that has historically kept private R&D investment low, particularly in strategic and sunrise domains
Key: Approved by the Union Cabinet on 1 July 2025 with a Rs 1 lakh crore corpus; a two-tier structure in which a Special Purpose Fund inside ANRF is the custodian and second-level fund managers on-lend to industry, mostly as long-tenure concessional loans; targets projects at TRL 4 and above and provides for a Deep-Tech Fund of Funds
Ensure technologies do not remain confined to laboratories but are converted into products, solutions and enterprises
Key: A statutory body constituted on 1 September 1996 under the Technology Development Board Act, 1995; provides equity capital or loans to industrial concerns and financial assistance to R&D institutions for commercialising indigenous technology and adapting imported technology
Provide high-level strategic direction to scientific research in India, as recommended by the National Education Policy, 2020
Key: Set up under the Anusandhan National Research Foundation Act, 2023, which repealed the Science and Engineering Research Board Act, 2008 and dissolved SERB; total estimated cost of Rs 50,000 crore over 2023-28; the Prime Minister is its ex-officio President, with the Ministers of Science & Technology and of Education as Vice-Presidents
Channel patient capital into deep-technology ventures that conventional finance treats as too long-dated or too risky
Key: Provided for under the RDI Scheme, which prioritises energy security, deep technology such as quantum computing, robotics and space, and artificial intelligence applications
Statutory financing body for the commercialisation of indigenous technology; the release notes it is the first to roll out proposals under the RDI Fund's later-stage TRL4 support
Apex research funding and strategic direction body; custodian of the RDI Fund's Special Purpose Fund
Nodal department for the RDI Scheme and the parent department of both TDB and ANRF
The statutory research funding body created by the SERB Act, 2008 that ANRF absorbed and replaced in 2023 — a standard 'which body replaced which' question
The Act of Parliament constituting TDB; it received the President's assent on 16 December 1995 and the Board came into being on 1 September 1996, which is why its 30th Foundation Day falls on 1 September 2026.
Establishes ANRF as the apex body giving strategic direction to research; it repealed the Science and Engineering Research Board Act, 2008 and dissolved SERB. ANRF now houses the RDI Fund's Special Purpose Fund.
Technology Readiness Level is a scale used to describe how far a technology has travelled from an idea towards deployment — the lowest levels cover basic principles and a concept on paper, the middle levels cover validation in a laboratory and then in a relevant environment, and the highest levels cover a system proven in operation. By setting its threshold at TRL 4 and above, the RDI Fund deliberately stays out of basic research and targets the stage at which a technology has been validated in the lab but still has to be scaled, tested in real conditions and manufactured. That is the stage economists call the 'valley of death': too advanced for research grants, too unproven for commercial lenders. The design follows from the diagnosis — India's Gross Expenditure on Research and Development has hovered below one per cent of GDP, and the shortfall is largely private rather than public, so the instrument chosen is concessional debt to firms rather than more grants to laboratories.
Simple Analogy: A grant funds proving that an engine design can work. A bank lends once the engine is already selling. The RDI Fund covers the gap in between — building the first hundred engines and finding out whether they survive a real road.
ANRF was set up on the NEP's recommendation for an apex research funding body, and its Act repealed the SERB Act of 2008 — the standard 'new body replaces old body' pairing in science policy questions.
The Minister linked the RDI approach to the opening of space, biotechnology and the nuclear sector to private players — the same policy direction as IN-SPACe in space and the BioE3 policy in biotechnology.
The Deep-Tech Fund of Funds under the RDI Scheme extends the fund-of-funds model already used for start-ups, but aimed at quantum, robotics, space and AI ventures with long gestation.
India's research spending remains below one per cent of GDP, and the share contributed by business enterprise is low by comparison with major economies — the diagnosis behind a scheme that lends to firms rather than granting to laboratories.
GS Paper 3 > Science and Technology > Developments and Applications; Indigenisation of Technology
General Awareness > Government Schemes and Scientific Institutions
General Awareness > Government Funds, Financial Institutions and Schemes
Research funding institutions — ANRF, SERB, TDB — and the RDI Fund have appeared repeatedly since 2023 in Prelims science and technology questions.
The first-tier vehicle inside ANRF that holds the RDI Scheme's Rs 1 lakh crore corpus and allocates it to second-level fund managers.
Alternative Investment Funds, Development Finance Institutions and NBFCs that receive money from the SPF and on-lend it to industry, mostly as long-tenure concessional loans.
A scale describing how far a technology has moved from basic principle towards proven operational deployment; the RDI Fund supports TRL 4 and above.
Gross Expenditure on Research and Development — total spending on R&D in an economy, usually expressed as a share of GDP; India's stood at 0.84% in 2023-24.