Chemicals and petrochemicals added to RDI Scheme's funding areas
The Department of Science and Technology has made Advanced Chemicals, Petrochemicals and Material Technologies an additional technology area eligible for funding under the Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Scheme, with effect from 8 October 2026. It acted on a proposal from the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals. The scheme, launched in November 2025, has a Rs 1 lakh crore corpus.
Syllabus: GS3 · Liberalisation & Industry; GS2 · Government Policies; GS3 · Indian Achievements in S&T
Why this matters for UPSC
GS3, science and technology and industrial policy: Prelims can ask how the RDI Scheme is run and funded and which ministry DCPC belongs to; Mains, about private R&D and import dependence in chemicals.
Why it matters
An Indian company that wants to make a new polymer or a high-value material at home usually has two choices: license a foreign process or spend years and a lot of money developing its own, with no quick return. Banks rarely lend for that kind of risky, slow work. Now such a company can seek patient, cheap loans or equity through the scheme's fund managers. If it succeeds, factories rely less on imported technology and costly imported materials, and the profit and skills stay in India. The larger question is whether cheaper finance alone can lift private research in a sector long used to buying its technology.
Prelims pointers
- ANRF Governing Board, chaired by the Prime Minister: gives the RDI Scheme its overarching strategic direction.
- ANRF Executive Council: approves the RDI Scheme's guidelines and recommends second-level fund managers and the scope of projects in sunrise sectors.
- Empowered Group of Secretaries, led by the Cabinet Secretary: approves scheme changes, sectors, project types and second-level fund managers, and reviews the scheme's performance.
- RDI Scheme objectives also include financing transformative projects at higher TRLs, acquiring critical or strategic technologies and setting up a Deep-Tech Fund of Funds.
- RDI Fund: managed by an Independent Business Unit housed within the ANRF, under DST in the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Practise a UPSC-style question
With reference to the Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Scheme, consider the following statements:
1. An Empowered Group of Secretaries led by the Cabinet Secretary approves the scheme's sectors and second-level fund managers.
2. The Executive Council of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation approves the scheme's guidelines.
3. The Department of Science and Technology is the nodal department for implementing the scheme.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Show the answer
Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3. All three describe the governance the Union Cabinet set for the scheme on 1 July 2025.
Statement 1: correct. The Cabinet release of 1 July 2025 makes an Empowered Group of Secretaries, led by the Cabinet Secretary, responsible for approving sectors, project types and second-level fund managers.
Statement 2: correct. The ANRF Executive Council approves the scheme's guidelines and recommends second-level fund managers and the scope of projects in sunrise sectors.
Statement 3: correct. The Department of Science and Technology, under the Ministry of Science and Technology, is the scheme's nodal department.
Eliminate: Be sure of statement 3 first: DST is the nodal department, so it is correct. Out: (a).
Eliminate: Statement 2 is correct too: the Executive Council approves the guidelines. Out: (c).
Eliminate: Statement 1 also holds: the EGoS approves sectors and fund managers. Out: (b).
Trap: Sounds right. Three bodies share the scheme's governance, and a student who expects a single approving authority may strike one of the true statements as invented.
Remember: RDI Scheme: ANRF Board sets direction, ANRF Executive Council approves guidelines, EGoS approves sectors, DST is nodal.
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