New Delhi: Even as India’s gross expenditure on research and development (GERD) continues to hover at 0.6–0.7% of GDP, the Centre is rolling out a multi-pronged funding and policy push to accelerate innovation and deepen manufacturing capabilities, according to a reply tabled in Parliament by the Ministry of Science & Technology.
The government highlighted a sharp improvement in India’s Global Innovation Index ranking—from 81 in 2015 to 38 in 2025—as evidence of momentum, while acknowledging the need to lift R&D intensity.
At the core of the strategy is a ₹1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund and the newly established Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), backed by a ₹14,000 crore budgetary provision and additional non-government funding. The Centre has also stepped up allocations for scientific departments and research-oriented programmes to crowd in private investment.
The government is pairing funding with mission-mode bets across frontier technologies. These include the National Quantum Mission (₹6,003.65 crore), the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (₹3,660 crore), the India Semiconductor Mission (₹76,000 crore) and the National Supercomputing Mission, among others—aimed at building domestic capability in chips, compute and deep tech.
To speed up lab-to-market translation, policy levers are being aligned with programmes such as NIDHI, BIRAC, iDEX and TIDE 2.0, alongside a push for public–private partnerships and technology hubs. Newer frameworks—the Geospatial Policy 2022, Space Policy 2023 and the BioE3 Policy 2024—are designed to widen private sector participation and strengthen commercialization through technology transfer offices, incubators and structured licensing models.
The government’s pitch: scale funding, focus on missions, and tighten industry linkages to convert India’s rising innovation rank into a durable, high-tech manufacturing base.