3 min readNew DelhiAug 20, 2026 04:22 AM IST
First published on: Aug 20, 2026 at 04:22 AM IST
While maintaining that the safeguards on avoiding conflict of interest in the disbursement of Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund were fairly robust, Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday said the government was open to considering suggestions for strengthening the process further.
Singh’s remarks, made at the monthly meeting of Secretaries of scientific departments under his charge, come in the wake of an investigative report by The Indian Express earlier this month that showed that 15 of the 22 private companies selected for the first round of funding from the RDI Fund had investment ties to seven members of the selection panel, raising questions of conflict of interest and propriety.
Though the panel members concerned had declared their interest and recused themselves from evaluating the company they had a stake in, as per the guidelines, the matter underlined the need for additional safeguards in the system.
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At Wednesday’s meeting, Singh reviewed all the procedural safeguards being adopted to avoid a conflict of interest situation, and emphasised that due diligence and verification processes must remain uncompromised. He said that suggestions from stakeholders were welcome, and “wherever feasible, more safeguards could be considered,” according to a statement from the Science and Technology Ministry.
The RDI Fund was set up by the government last year to provide low-cost long-period loans to private companies engaged in cutting-edge research in some priority areas like quantum computing, robotics, space, biotechnology, clean energy and climate action. The Fund is supposed to have a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore over six years. Selected companies are eligible to receive a maximum of 50 per cent of their project cost in loans from the Fund. In the first round of funding, loans worth Rs 2,192 crore were approved for 22 companies.
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The minister was informed that the experience of the first round would help in smoother and more efficient functioning of the system in subsequent rounds, the statement said. The selection of companies in the second round has been finalised, but not disclosed yet. The Indian Express had reported that only one out of 13 selected companies in the second round had any link to a member of the selection committee.
The ministry’s statement said the government was conscious that private sector participation was a “new experience within such a public funding framework and therefore required a balance between speed, responsibility and stakeholder confidence.”
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The minister was also informed that companies from many more sectors had been made eligible for loans from the RDI Fund, following a recommendation in this regard by an expert committee. The statement said that inter-ministerial consultations had taken place, and every ministry had been asked to suggest areas of national importance in which private sector companies engaged in research could be supported through the RDI Fund. It said this would ensure that the RDI Fund framework was made more inclusive and responsive to strategic requirements of the country.
Union Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Jitendra Singh 
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