India's Technology Development Board (TDB) has committed Rs 2,192 crore from the Rs 1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund to a first cohort of 22 projects, representing a combined Rs 4,744 crore in R&D activity. Industrialist Sudhir Mehta, founder and chairman of Pinnacle Industries and a member of TDB's Investment Committee, disclosed the figures on X on Tuesday.

The numbers give R&D managers a first read on how the flagship scheme will allocate capital in practice. Of the 22 projects, 14 are startups. Thirteen sit in deeptech domains: reusable launch vehicles, Earth observation satellites, quantum-secure communication, Indian chip design, drones, robotics and next-generation batteries. The selected projects cluster in seven cities — Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Thane, Noida and Pune.

The RDI Scheme traces to a Union Cabinet approval in July 2025 and a launch in November. It carries a six-year outlay and targets private-sector participation in research and development, specifically the development and commercialisation of indigenous technologies in strategic sectors.

Operationally, the money moves through a Special Purpose Fund inside the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) to Second-Level Fund Managers (SLFMs). The government has designated TDB and the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) as SLFMs, with the Department of Science and Technology (DST) as nodal ministry.

The financing terms

Mehta framed the fund's value proposition around patient, cheap capital. "India's problem was never ideas. It was patient capital," he wrote, noting the RDI Fund offers financing at 3–4% interest for terms up to 15 years, without collateral or personal guarantees.

He laid out the economics in a single passage: "We spend 0.64% of GDP on R&D, and private industry funds only about 36% of it. RDIF changes the math: 3 to 4% interest, up to 15 years, no collateral, no personal guarantees. Evaluation in 8 weeks, money in 12. And every rupee comes with two conditions: IP stays in India, control stays with Indian citizens."

For research organisations weighing applications, the stated processing targets — eight weeks for evaluation, twelve weeks to disbursal — set a benchmark against which actual performance can be measured. The IP-residency and citizenship-control conditions will shape how joint ventures with foreign partners structure ownership.

What to interrogate

Several claims warrant scrutiny. The R&D-intensity ratio of the cohort — Rs 4,744 crore in total project value against Rs 2,192 crore in fund money — implies roughly 46% public coverage per project on aggregate, but the source does not break down per-project splits or the mix of debt, equity and grants. The 22-project cohort is small, and TDB has not disclosed selection rates, rejection reasons or how the committee weighed technical risk.

The GDP figure Mehta cites, 0.64% of GDP on gross domestic R&D expenditure, is below peer-economy levels; his claim that the fund "changes the math" is a projection, not a measured outcome, and the Rs 1 lakh crore corpus represents authorised scale rather than deployed capital. Deployment to date stands at the Rs 2,192 crore announced for this cohort.

Mehta's enthusiasm is that of an appointed committee member advocating the programme, not an independent assessor. "After sitting across the table from these founders, I have no doubt. India's top notch deeptech companies are being built right now. The capital is ready. The founders are ready. This decade belongs to Indian deeptech," he wrote, adding that after months of reviewing proposals he is "more optimistic about India's future than at any point."

For portfolio planners, the first cohort signals where Indian public deeptech money is flowing first: space launch and satellites, quantum communications, semiconductors, drones, robotics and energy storage. Whether the eight-week evaluation and twelve-week disbursal targets hold as application volume scales — and how the IP-stays-in-India condition interacts with cross-border collaboration — will define the fund's usefulness to R&D leaders over its six-year run.