First tranche of research innovation fund to be spent by March

The Department of Science and Technology will spend its first tranche of ₹3,000 crore — out of the ₹1 lakh crore corpus of the Research Development and Innovation scheme — by March this year, Abhay Karandikar, Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology, said on Monday (February 2, 2026).

The scheme anticipates investing in high-risk, high-impact research and the strengthening of linkages between laboratories, start-ups, and industry. It was unveiled in February 2025. Although allotted ₹20,000 crore for the Financial Year 2025-26, the Department of Science and Technology has not been able to spend any of that corpus until January. The February 1 Union Budget allocation for the Ministry of Science and Technology, however, has a ₹20,000 crore allocation for FY 2026-27.

“The Research, Development, and Innovation fund will not directly invest in corporations or startups. It will invest through second-level fund managers, including alternate investment funds, development finance institutions. 193 such fund managers have applied, and we will be shortlisting and selecting out of it,” Mr. Karandikar said.

“Currently, only two statutory bodies — the Technology Development Board (under the Department of Science and Technology) and the Biotechnology Research and Innovation Council (under the Department of Biotechnology) have been appointed as fund managers (via nomination). That is the reason we couldn’t spend the ₹20,000 crore. The ₹1 lakh crore needs to be deployed over seven years. We will spend ₹3,000 crore by March 31, 2026,” he added.

Mr. Singh said that the provisions of the Budget had poised India to be a “manufacturing” economy. The ₹10,000 crore Biopharma Shakti mission, over five years, will be spread among multiple Ministries to develop biological materials that would create new jobs and spur progress in fields as varied as drug development and carbon capture.