India's finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman holding the budget document before presenting it in Parliament. Credit: PIB
India has earmarked a trillion rupees (around $US 12 billion) in interest-free loans for research in new technologies and innovation, its finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, announced today. The 2024 budget provides an increase of about 6.7% on last year for ministries or departments involved in science and technology research.
The loans, aimed at reviving the country’s start-up ecosystem, will be made available to researchers for financing or refinancing at low or no interest rate. The loans can be paid back over 50 years, she said.
The government will also launch a new scheme to strengthen deep-tech that can make the defence sector self-reliant.
The scientific community welcomed the announcement of the R&D loans. Anurag Agrawal, dean of the Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University, said this is a key step that might enable India to break out of the “low or middle-income country trap”.
Budget outlay (in rupees)
2024-25 |
2023-24 |
|
|---|---|---|
Department of Science and Technology |
80.29 billion |
48.91 billion |
Department of Biotechnology |
22.51 billion |
16.07 billion |
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research |
63.23 billion |
62.02 billion |
Ministry of Earth Sciences |
25.21 billion |
28.79 billion |
Department of Health Research |
30.01 billion |
28.92 billion |
Department of Space |
130.42 billion |
110.70 billion |
Department of Atomic Energy |
249.68 billion |
267.99 billion |
The government also plans to focus on green energy. Sitharaman announced plans to light up 10 million households with a monthly allocation of free rooftop solar electricity. Besides creating employment and entrepreneurship opportunities, the programme wants to create energy for electric vehicles.
Sitharaman emphasised India’s commitment to achieving ‘net zero’ by 2070 with funds to harness offshore wind energy potential for an initial capacity of one giga-watt. The government plans to ramp up its coal gasification and liquefaction capacity to 100 tonnes by 2030, to reduce imports of natural gas, methanol, and ammonia.
The budget outlined several ways to improve India’s health infrastructure and underlined ways to boost services for all. The government plans to set up more medical colleges by utilising the existing hospital infrastructure.
There are plans for a broad programme of HPV vaccination for girls aged between 9 and 14. Physicist and senior scientist at the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Rohini Godbole, said, “I am happy with the announcement of the vaccination programme and the emphasis on women in the healthcare budget. As a scientist I would like to see an equal emphasis for both technology and science. These are the two wheels of the vehicle of progress.”
Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, CEO of the private Fortis Healthcare group, called the budget “forward-looking”. “Expanding medical colleges within existing hospital infrastructure will address the shortage of healthcare professionals and strengthen medical education,” he said.
