Source: TOI
Context:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Emerging Science & Technology Innovation Conclave (ESTIC) 2025 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, and launched the ₹1 lakh-crore Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) Scheme Fund.
Launch of the ₹1 Lakh-Crore RDI Scheme Fund
- The Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) Scheme Fund — a ₹1 lakh-crore corpus — was officially launched to boost private-sector R&D investment.
- The fund aims to provide long-term, low or zero-interest capital for high-risk, high-impact projects with the potential for large-scale technological breakthroughs.
- Objective: To create capital availability for innovation-intensive sectors and promote India’s global leadership in emerging technologies.
Establishment of Anusandhan Research Foundation
- PM Modi announced the creation of the Anusandhan Research Foundation to strengthen research, innovation, and collaboration across universities and scientific institutions.
- The foundation aims to foster an academic–industry–government nexus, encouraging joint R&D and commercialization of cutting-edge technologies.
About Research, Development & Innovation (RDI) Scheme 2025
- Launched: November 3, 2025
- Corpus: ₹1 lakh crore
- Objective: To de-risk and fund high-risk, high-TRL (Technology Readiness Level) projects in deep-tech, critical technology, and strategic innovation domains.
- Mechanism: Long-tenure, low or zero-interest loans to private enterprises for bold R&D ventures.
Key Features:
- Long-term capital access: Provides flexible financing for deep-tech projects often neglected by commercial banks or venture investors.
- Deep-Tech Fund of Funds: Establishes a national fund ecosystem for start-ups in AI, semiconductors, biotechnology, and advanced materials.
- Critical technology acquisition: Enables Indian firms to develop or acquire strategic technologies vital for national security, energy independence, and digital sovereignty.
- Innovation pipeline strengthening: Offers growth and risk capital for prototype-to-market translation.
- Industry–academia collaboration: Encourages joint R&D projects to promote cross-sectoral knowledge exchange.
- Focus areas: Quantum tech, green hydrogen, space technology, bioengineering, and next-gen communication — aligning with the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision.
Complementary National Initiatives
| Initiative | Key Focus | Financial Outlay |
|---|---|---|
| ANRF (Act 2023, operational 2024) | ₹50,000 crore mobilization (2023–28); academia–industry linkages | ₹14,000 crore public + private |
| National Quantum Mission | Quantum computing, communications, materials | ₹6,003.65 crore (2023–31) |
| National Supercomputing Mission | Indigenous HPC, skill training centers (Pune, Kharagpur, Chennai, Palakkad, Goa) | Ongoing |
| India Semiconductor Mission (PLI) | Fab and chip design ecosystem | ₹76,000 crore (10 projects; ₹1.6 lakh crore investment) |
| Deep Ocean Mission | Marine tech, blue economy, biodiversity | ₹4,077 crore |
| IndiaAI Mission | Compute scale-up to 38,000 GPUs; innovation, governance, and skilling | ₹10,371.92 crore |
| AIM 2.0 (till 2028) | Expanding ATLs/AICs, MSME innovation | ₹2,750 crore |
