RDI fund to boost, incentivise deep-tech startup ecosystem: Jitendra Singh

India's new Rs 1 lakh crore RDI Fund aims to accelerate deep-tech innovation with long-term, low-interest capital, boosting private-sector research in frontier technologies

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The newly launched research, development, and innovation (RDI) Fund will boost and incentivise the deep-tech startup ecosystem, including companies and the private sector, said Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology. The RDI Fund is worth Rs 1 lakh crore and aims to spur private sector-driven research and innovation in the country.

 

Speaking at the Domestic Institutional Investors (DII) & Exits Forum 2025 here on Tuesday, the minister said, "The motivation (to launch the RDI fund) is manifold. It could be said that we are now into this because we have started following the global strategies of growth. Being a part of the global world, and if we see ourselves in the ambitious goal of being ranked one, we can't be working in silos because most of these developed countries and their success stories have been written with the active participation of the private sector. So, to initiate, boost, and incentivise, this fund has been floated." He noted that the cooperation of the private sector would allow the country to compete effectively on a global scale.

 

The minister added that the fund will add value to the existing sectors, while also exploring underexplored or unexplored sectors. "The sectors like space did exist, but we did not give any kind of attention to them. The nuclear sector was not handled with a universal perspective. In deep-tech, the rest of the world had started looking into but we were not looking at this," he said.

 

He referred to the fund as "one of the most unique and forward-looking initiatives taken by the government" to support high-risk, high-reward research in frontier technologies, and to catalyse partnership between government, industry, and investors. He said the fund has been designed with a long-term mindset, having low-interest, patient capital and risk-sharing features that send a clear signal of the government’s intent to crowd in private investment rather than crowd it out.

 

Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the RDI Fund last month at the Emerging Science, Technology, and Innovation Conclave (ESTIC) 2025. The newly announced aims to focus on areas including energy security and transition, quantum computing, robotics, space, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence (AI).

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched a research, development, and innovation (RDI) Fund worth Rs 1 lakh crore to spur private sector-driven research and innovation in the country. The announcement was made on the inaugural day of the Emerging Science, Technology, and Innovation Conclave (ESTIC) 2025.

 

Under the fund, which doesn't support grants and short-term loans, the modes of financing include long-term loans at low or nil interest rates, equity infusion (especially for startups), and contributions to the Deep-Tech Fund of Funds. The nodal ministry of the RDI Fund is the Department of Science and Technology (DST).