NEW DELHI: Leveraging technology for catalyzing growth, employment and development, the government will set up a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore with 50-year interest free loan that will provide necessary long-term finance to tech savvy youth and private sector for research and innovation.
In addition, a new scheme will be launched for strengthening deep-tech technologies for defence purposes and expediting self-reliance. The corpus will be used to promote innovation and StartUps coupled with a new scheme for deep-tech StartUps in Defence.
"For our tech savvy youth, this will be a golden era...The corpus will provide long-term financing or refinancing with long tenors and low or nil interest rates,” said finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting her interim budget in Parliament on Thursday.
She said, “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.”
Deep technology (deep-tech) is a term used to refer to the class of technologies that are based on scientific and technological breakthroughs and have the potential to be commercialised. It includes disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), 3D printing, advanced materials, Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain and augmented & virtual reality.
Reacting to the interim budget, Union minister Jitendra Singh said self-reliance in science & technology will also get a fillip with the proposed new scheme to be launched for strengthening Deep-Tech technologies for the defence sector.
Referring to another proposed scheme of “bio-manufacturing and bio-foundry”, Singh who is science & technology minister said that the department of biotechnology (DBT) will play a key role in the scheme that will promote green growth.
The scheme is intended to provide environment-friendly alternatives to consumers such as biodegradable polymers, bio-plastics, bio-pharmaceuticals and bio-agri products.
“This scheme will also help in transforming today’s consumptive manufacturing paradigm to the one based on regenerative principles,” said Sitharaman while announcing the new scheme during her interim budget presentation.
Though details of the proposed scheme will be released later, the concept is broadly based on circularity where recycling and reuse of resources would be the key for manufacturing. It will also use bio-agri inputs for various uses including production of ethanol as a source of bioenergy and bio-degradable items. Similarly, bio-based feedstocks will be used in bio-refineries and power plants. Currently, use of paddy stubble in power plants is one of the examples.
Since bioenergy in the energy mix is aligned with the country’s vision of Energy Independence by 2047, the move will not only help in cutting India’s import bills but also facilitate in achieving the climate action goals towards carbon neutrality future by 2070.
Similarly, use of environment-friendly alternatives in bio-manufacturing will ultimately help India towards the government’s motto of ‘Zero Defect, Zero Effect’ sustainable manufacturing process.
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Vishwa Mohan is Senior Editor at The Times of India. He writes on...
Read MoreVishwa Mohan is Senior Editor at The Times of India. He writes on environment, climate change, agriculture, water resources and clean energy, tracking policy issues and climate diplomacy. He has been covering Parliament since 2003 to see how politics shaped up domestic policy and India’s position at global platform. Before switching over to explore sustainable development issues, Vishwa had covered internal security and investigative agencies for more than a decade.
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