PM Modi Unveils Rs 1 Trillion RDI Fund, Calls For Ethical Innovation And Inclusive Science At ESTIC 2025

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday (3 November) launched the Rs 1 trillion Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund at the first-ever Emerging Science, Technology and Innovation Conclave (ESTIC 2025), held from 3–5 November in New Delhi.

The initiative, steered by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), aims to energise private-sector investment in research and development and accelerate India’s march towards Viksit Bharat 2047.

The Fund will operate through a two-tier structure, with a Special Purpose Fund (SPF) housed within the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) serving as custodian of the Rs 1 trillion corpus.

Instead of directly investing in companies, the RDI Fund will channel capital via second-level fund managers such as Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs).

Independent investment committees of experts will recommend support, ensuring decisions remain at arm’s length from government.

Emphasising the tangible results of India’s innovation-driven policies, the Prime Minister highlighted that the country’s R&D expenditure has doubled in a decade, registered patents have grown seventeen-fold, and India now ranks as the world’s third-largest start-up ecosystem.

Over 6,000 deep-tech start-ups are working in fields such as clean energy and advanced materials, while the bio-economy has surged from $10 billion in 2014 to $140 billion today.

He also underlined the rise of India’s semiconductor sector and advances in green hydrogen, quantum computing and critical minerals.

“When science is scaled, innovation becomes inclusive, and technology drives transformation, it lays the foundation for major achievements,” remarked the Prime Minister.

He noted India’s evolution from a consumer to a creator of technology, citing the rapid development of indigenous vaccines during the pandemic as proof of capability.

Modi credited India’s digital public infrastructure—linking over two lakh gram panchayats through fibre networks for enabling large-scale delivery of programmes.

He also highlighted the government’s commitment to ethical and human-centric artificial intelligence, noting an investment of Rs 10,000 crore under the India AI Mission and announcing that India will host the Global AI Summit in February 2026.

Concluding his address, Modi urged scientists to pursue transformative research in areas such as nutrition security, bio-fertilisers, genomic mapping and clean-energy storage.

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