India's RDI Fund: We just cannot afford to miss our R&D moment

The Centre's big push is in the right direction but outcomes will depend on how well we redesign the broader R&D ecosystem

- RAJESH NAMBIAR

In recent months, India's R&D capability has become a matter of national debate. Rightly so. The government's announcement of its Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund signals the right intent. In many ways, this should be seen not as the culmination of India's science agenda, but as an opening to a larger redesign of how the country organizes and governs R&D.

Today, India's challenge is not lack of ambition, but the underlying architecture. Our research ecosystem still faces issues such as data gaps, slow translation cycles, regulatory friction and limited patient capital for DeepTech. Without thoughtful structural improvement, even a new fund, however large, may struggle to fully deliver the innovation outcomes India seeks. In this context, the ₹1 trillion RDI scheme, operationalized through the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), marks a pivotal shift. It finally gives India a dual-engine innovation architecture that spans technology readiness levels (TRLs): ANRF grants for early-stage discovery and low-TRL science plus a patient-capital RDI Fund for translation, scaling and commercialization at higher TRLs.