The Core Report

#886 India’s ₹1.5 Lakh Crore DARPA Moment For Deep Tech

29 min

The Indian government has established the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) to catalyze deep tech R&D through a massive ₹1.5 lakh crore fund, modeled after DARPA. In its first cohort, the Technology Development Board has announced funding for 22 companies working on projects ranging from 6G and 3D-printed rockets to healthcare biotech, providing patient capital through long-term debt or convertibles. The ANRF aims to bridge gaps between fundamental research and commercialization, with a focus on sectors like space tech, AI, and energy transition, while also seeking CSR and philanthropic partnerships.

Summarized by Podsumo

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✨ Key Takeaways

1

The ANRF’s RDI (Research Development and Innovation) fund provides patient capital (₹50-250 crore per project) to commercial organizations for deep tech projects at TRL4 and above, with a 50% co-financing structure.
2

Funded projects include next-gen 6G technology, 3D-printed rockets for Earth observation, and AI-driven health tech, marking India’s first systematic approach to scaling deep tech through a statutory body.
3

The fund operates through a fund-of-fund structure with professional investment committees (government is not part of investment decisions), emphasizing speed and mentorship alongside monitoring.
4

AI is a key focus area, with applications in energy transition, drug discovery, and materials design, though the first cohort skews toward space tech and telecom.
5

The ANRF is also working to broaden R&D excellence in academia and create blended finance instruments (e.g., contingent grants) to bridge the gap from fundamental research to market translation.

💬 Notable Quotes

"We are creating a patient capital as a class by doing this. And we believe this is very important to drive the growth of deep tech and especially our RDI intensive deep tech research development and innovation driven deep tech."
"Deep tech sometimes requires time... may require less capital, it may be not capital intensive, but it might be time intensive. You need capital that is willing to wait for a longer time."
"We need to re-weight and transform how fundamental research is done in India. So we'd like it to be more bolder and to be able to do more things at scale."