How The Indian Express investigated government’s Rs 1 lakh crore tech fund

A day later, it released a reiteration of its rules, which involve the disclosure and recusal of a panel member linked to a firm being considered for investment.

But we felt a closer look was warranted.

Follow the money

Over the next few days, we pored over company records to get details of shareholder interests, and constructed a map of how much money went to whom.

Deputy Editor Amitabh Sinha, who has been writing on environment, climate change, science and technology, space and nuclear affairs for the Express for almost two decades and National Bureau Chief Sandeep Singh, who has been part of multiple investigation projects in the paper over the last 15-plus years, had a short window to explore how conflicts of interest kick in.

In the interest of fairness and accuracy, they reached out to every member of the panel and requested detailed responses to the investigation.

Their findings led us to the headline.

Going beyond the government’s response to the question in Parliament, they uncovered the nature of the association of each member with the companies in question and the financial stakes.

Nearly two-thirds or 62 per cent of over Rs 2,000 crore was lent to companies which had ties to members on the panel that decided where the money went.

On their part, the experts on the panel have pointed out that it is perhaps expected that some of the sharpest minds in technology and investment, if they are chosen from the private sector, will have ties to private firms.

But the grounds for the Express’s deep dive were articulated by a member of the board itself.

Responding to a request for comment on the report – something we received and published from all members of the panel – Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing Director, TVS Capitals Fund, told The Indian Express: “I think this is a fair question to ask. And it is good that this is being discussed in the public domain.”

“The whole purpose of the RDI (Rs 1-lakh-crore Research, Development and Innovation) fund is to enable access to long-term risk capital to companies engaged in novel and promising technology development, ideally strategic for sovereign ownership. And there is very active private participation in this process. In fact, the suggestion for establishing the RDI fund had also come from the private sector to fulfil some financing gaps,” he said.

So what were the key takeaways from the investigation?

1. India’s new deep tech innovation fund gave Rs 2,192 crore to 22 firms in its first round, covering space tech, energy and pharma sectors.

2. We found 15 of 22 recipients have investment ties to seven selection panel members, totalling over Rs 1,377 crore.

3. Panel chairman Saurabh Srivastava, an angel investor, is linked to nine funded firms, including a personal stake in Noccarc Robotics (vs eight firms disclosed in the minister’s response to parliament).

4. Government says selections were “purely on merit” with zero conflicted-member involvement in evaluation or sanction decisions.

5. Congress MP Praveen Chakravarty’s parliamentary query prompted the minister to name the seven members with disclosed interests.

6. Panellists, including those from Tata, TVS Capital and Persistent Systems, defend the process, citing mandatory disclosure and recusal rules.

After the Express investigation was published, within hours the government called a press conference and issued a statement in line with committee members’ stance that they had already addressed the issue of potential conflicts of interest, and said enough safeguards were part of their process while approving funding for the companies.

You can read the full investigation story here.

And an Explained piece on the fund, set up last year, here.