Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday gave the Department of Science and Technology ₹20,000 crore as a capital for a fund to encourage innovation driven by the private sector, indicating a commitment to research and development.
In July of last year, Sitharaman declared in the budget that a ₹1 lakh crore research and development fund would be established.The fund will be established to help research and development in the deep tech and sunrise sectors thanks to the funding included in Saturday's budget.
"To implement the private sector-driven Research, Development and Innovation initiative announced in the July budget, I am now allocating ₹20,000 crore," said Sitharaman.
The finance minister also announced that a Deep Tech Fund of Funds would be investigated as part of this strategy to stimulate the next generation of start-ups while presenting the Union Budget for the fiscal year 2025–2026.
"This year's funding will launch the fund and provide a significant boost to private sector research and development in the deep tech and sunrise sectors. According to Abhay Karandikar, secretary of the Department of Science and technical, "this will be a significant step towards creating strategic autonomy in some key technology sectors."
Despite tax exemptions for research and development, the private sector had not taken up the cause, so the government decided to intervene and encourage it to do so.
Concerns regarding the business sector's reluctance to invest in research and development were raised in the Economic Survey, which was delivered to Parliament on Friday.
Despite numerous government incentive programs, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran stated during a news conference on Friday that the private sector's investment in R&D was extremely low.
"Only 41% of the nation's total research and devThe ₹13,416.2 crore allotted to the Department of Space is an increase from ₹13,042.75 crore.
The budget has allotted ₹10,230.2 crore to a number of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) facilities, including the Human Spaceflight Center, the UR Rao Satellite Center, the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, and other programs, including as the construction of launch vehicles.
The second-largest portion, ₹1,706.8 crore, went to space applications, which supported facilities including the National Remote Sensing Center, the Development and Educational Communication Unit, and the Space Applications Center.
elopment expenditures come from business enterprises, while 50% comes from the government," he continued.
Concerns about sector-centered private sector investments in R&D were also voiced by Nageswaran.
One area where the private sector should improve, he said, is research and development.
The budgeted allocation for this fund, which is led by the Department of Science and Technology, increased significantly from ₹8,029 crore to ₹28,508.90 crore.
The ₹3,446.64 crore allotted to the Department of Biotechnology represents an increase of ₹1,170.94 crore over the ₹2,275.70 crore budgeted in the July budget.
The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research was given ₹6,657.78 crore, compared to ₹6,323.41 crore for the fiscal year 2024–2025.
Out of ₹24,968.98 crore, ₹24,049.10 crore has been allocated to the Department of Atomic Energy.
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