Budget 2024: Govt to provide corpus worth ₹1 lakh cr with 50-year interest-free loan for R&D

To boost the domestic technology ecosystem, the government will provide a corpus worth ₹1 lakh crore with a 50-year interest-free loan to the tech-savvy youth, union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on February 1. Sitharaman presented the interim union budget for FY25 on Thursday.

“For our tech-savvy youth, this will be a golden era. A corpus of ₹1 lakh crore will be established with a 50-year interest-free loan provided. It will be for long-term financing or re-financing with low or nil interest rates. This will encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation significantly in sunrise domains. We need to have programmes that combine the powers of our youth and technology,” says Sitharaman, adding that innovation is the foundation of development.

The government is also planning to launch a new scheme for strengthening deep-tech technologies for defence purposes. “A new scheme will be launched for strengthening deep-tech technologies for defence purposes and expediting ‘aatmanirbharta,” says Sitharaman.

According to Sitharaman, in order to grow and compete globally, the government has an important policy priority to ensure timely and adequate finances, relevant technologies and appropriate training for the micro, small and medium (MSMEs) enterprises. "Orienting the regulatory environment to facilitate their growth will be an important element of this policy mix," says Sitharaman.

Meanwhile, Sitharaman observes that new-age technologies and data are enabling new economic opportunities and high-quality services at affordable prices globally. “New age technologies and data are changing the lives of people and businesses. They are also enabling new economic opportunities and facilitating the provision of high-quality services at affordable prices for all, including those at ‘bottom of the pyramid’. Opportunities for India at the global level are expanding. India is showing solutions through innovation and entrepreneurship of its people,” the finance minister says.

The announcement is touted to be crucial for the deep technology research and development landscape in the country. Notably, ahead of the interim budget, industry stakeholders had urged the government to provide some impetus for the faster adoption of deep technologies in India.