Our primary goal is to develop and protect indigenous tech

Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Abhay Karandikar talks to Neeraj Thakur and Shruti Tripathi about boosting deep-tech entrepreneurship and drawing scientists back to India. Edited excerpts

- Neeraj Thakur and Shruti Tripathi

What is the status of the Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) fund's operationalisation?

We are preparing implementation guidelines and special financial rules. In fact, the Cabinet approved that liberalised financial rules will be made specifically for this fund.

This fund will operate in a two-tier structure. We will not be investing directly in startups or corporations. Instead, the government will provide funds to second-level fund managers, who will then select the startups and companies for investment.

By routing the fund through professional fund managers, we expect that investments, evaluations and disbursals will take place in a professional manner.

India has traditionally taken a conservative stand on intellectual property rights (IPR) to protect access to generics. Has this limited innovation?

Maybe that was the situation earlier, but it’s not like that anymore. There is now significant awareness about IPR creation both in our academic institutions and industry.

In fact, if you look at patent filings, India now ranks around sixth or seventh globally, which is a big improvement. Similarly, our position in the Global Innovation Index has improved substantially from about 10 years ago [when] we were ranked 81st, and today we are 38th.

Even in terms of scientific and engineering publications, India now ranks third in the world after China and the US.