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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has allocated Rs 20,000 crore to the Research, Development and Innovation initiative in the Union Budget 2025-26, aimed at “investing in people, the economy and innovation” in India. This builds on the initiative first announced in the July 2024 budget to drive private sector-led research.
In her Budget speech on February 1, 2025, Sitharaman also announced a Deep Tech Fund of Funds to promote next-generation start-ups in the country.
The Union Budget also introduced a National Geospatial Mission with an outlay of Rs 100 crore for 2025-26. The mission aims to “develop foundational geospatial infrastructure and data” and will be funded under the Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti, or the National Master Plan for Multi-modal Connectivity. The initiative is expected to modernise land records, enhance urban planning and improve the design of infrastructure projects, Sitharaman explained in her speech.
The Mission also provides an opportunity to use geographical information systems (GIS) for better climate-appropriate planning and design in wake of the cities’ growing climate burden, experts told Down To Earth (DTE).
“Considering the rising heat episodes, GIS-based mapping should focus on mapping the heat pockets in cities and later ensure certain funding mechanisms so that cooling action in cities could be furthered,” said Rajneesh Sareen, programme director, sustainable habitat programme, Centre for Science and Environment, Delhi.
Sareen also emphasised the importance of incorporating climate action into regulatory frameworks: “Amendments to model building by-laws and the Urban and Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation guidelines have already recommended measures for urban cooling, which should be adopted under such provisioning.”
Sitharaman also announced a major push for research in India, with a proposal to provide 10,000 fellowships under the Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship scheme, over the next five years. These fellowships will support research at the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science.
Additionally, the Budget 2025-26 documents provide a closer look at the overall budgetary outlay for the Union Ministry of Science and Technology’s Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) and Department of Biotechnology (DBT).
With the introduction of the Research, Development and Innovation initiative and the National Geospatial Mission, the budgetary allocation for DST schemes has risen to Rs 23,290 crore for 2025-26. This marks a significant increase from the 2024-25 Budget Estimate (BE) of Rs 2,819 crore and the Revised Estimate (RE) of Rs 2,351 crore.
The department’s Vigyan Dhara scheme, which promotes scientific research and capacity building, has also seen an increase, with a proposed outlay of Rs 1,425 crore for 2025-26, compared to the RE of Rs 330.75 crore in 2024-25. Funding for India’s quantum and supercomputing missions has also seen marginal increase.
However, the Science and Engineering Research Board saw a dip in allocation, from Rs 803 crore in BE 2024-25 to Rs 693 crore in 2025-26, with the RE for 2024-25 standing at Rs 766 crore.
The National Research Foundation, a flagship Rs 50,000 crore initiative by the Union government to transform scientific research in India, has received Rs 2,000 crore — same as in the previous Budget. The RE for 2024-25 is pegged at Rs 200 crore.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has been allocated Rs 6,600 crore for 2025-26, a marginal increase from the BE of Rs 6,265.8 crore and RE of Rs 6,303.45 crore in 2024-25. Funding for “Industrial Research and Development” remains unchanged at Rs 16.5 crore.
Overall, the DSIR was allocated Rs 6,657 crore for 2025-26, up from the BE of Rs 6,323 crore and RE of Rs 6,350 crore in 2024-25.
The Union Budget 2025-26 proposed an outlay of Rs 2,300 crore for the Biotechnology Research Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development (Bio-RIDE) scheme, which was approved by the Cabinet in September 2024. Bio-RIDE consolidates two existing umbrella schemes under the DBT to support biotechnology research, industrial development, entrepreneurship, biomanufacturing and biofoundry.
With other schemes receiving marginal increases in funding, the overall allocation for the DBT stands at Rs 3,446.64 crore for 2025-26, up from the BE of Rs 2,275.7 crore and RE of Rs 2,460.13 crore in 2024-25.