(RDI Fund) At a high-level roundtable held during the India International Science Festival (IISF) 2025 in Panchkula, Union Minister of Science and Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh urged industry, investors and research institutions to assume a greater role in advancing India’s scientific and technological landscape. The event marked a key outreach initiative as the Government prepares to roll out the ₹1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund, one of India’s most ambitious innovation financing programmes to date.
Shift From Publications to Real-World Impact
Addressing stakeholders from academia, startups, industry and scientific organisations, Dr. Singh stated that the effectiveness of science policy must be judged not simply by academic output, but by its ability to generate:
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Tangible technologies
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Quality jobs
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Scalable innovations
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Enhanced national capability
He emphasised that the private sector must now become a central partner in India’s innovation journey, noting that public institutions alone cannot sustain the scale and speed of R&D required for national technological self-reliance.
RDI Fund: Opening Innovation Financing to Industry
The outreach session familiarised participants with the structure of the RDI Fund, approved by the Union Cabinet earlier this year and formally launched by the Prime Minister in November.
Designed to catalyse private sector-led research and near-commercial innovation, the fund will prioritise high-impact domains including:
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Clean and renewable energy
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Artificial intelligence
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Biotechnology and life sciences
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Deep-tech manufacturing
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Semiconductors
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Digital economy and emerging technologies
The initiative aims to accelerate the transition of India’s innovations from lab prototypes to commercially deployable systems.
Professional, Layered Deployment Structure
Officials outlined the RDI Fund’s layered financing mechanism:
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The Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) will act as the first-level custodian.
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Deployment will be channelled through select second-level fund managers, including:
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Alternate Investment Funds (AIFs)
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Development finance institutions
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Specialised agencies such as the Technology Development Board (TDB) and BIRAC
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Unlike traditional grant-based models, support under the RDI Fund will primarily take the form of:
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Long-term, low-interest loans
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Equity investments
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Co-financing for near-market projects
This structure aligns scientific research with market readiness and industrial scalability.
Strengthening India’s Innovation Capacity
Dr. Singh highlighted India’s rapid rise as a global leader in scientific publications, patents, and startup creation. He attributed this momentum to sustained governmental support for R&D and entrepreneurship, adding that the RDI Fund is intended to bridge the critical gap between lab-stage research and commercial deployment, a long-standing challenge for Indian innovators.
Participants were also briefed on how the RDI Fund will complement ANRF’s mission of supporting:
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Basic and frontier research
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Young scientists
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Academia–industry collaborations
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Convergence research centres
Collaborative Governance and Stakeholder Feedback
Emphasising inclusivity in policy design, Dr. Singh invited industry leaders, investors and researchers to provide feedback on the scheme’s implementation. Calling the effort a “shared national project,” he urged stakeholders to bring ambition, foresight and risk appetite to India’s innovation financing landscape.
Conclusion
As India advances toward its Viksit Bharat@2047 goals, officials affirmed that the RDI Fund will play a transformative role in shifting Indian industry from manufacturing technologies developed elsewhere to inventing, owning, and exporting globally competitive innovations.
The fund marks a paradigm shift in the way India finances, governs and scales scientific research, placing the private sector at the helm of the nation’s innovation ecosystem.
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Source: PIB
