RDI scheme to fund innovation in tech

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet has approved the Research Development and Innovation (RDI) Scheme announced in the July Budget last year, with a corpus of Rs 1-lakh crore to provide risk capital to strategic and sunrise sectors, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

The scope of the scheme would range from energy security and transition to quantum computing, robotics, biotechnology and artificial intelligence, the government has said.

The scheme aims to provide long-term financing or refinancing with long tenors at low or nil interest rates to spur private sector investment in RDI through a two-tiered structure. The flow of funds would take place through grant of 50-year interest-free loans to the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), chaired by the Prime Minister.

ANRF would then give long-term concessional loans to second-level fund managers such as Alternative Investment Funds, Development Finance Institutions and Non-Banking Financial Companies. These second-level fund managers would then finance individual projects. The scheme would also facilitate setting up of a Deep-Tech Fund of Funds, finance transformative projects at higher levels of technology, and support acquisition of critical technologies of high strategic importance.