The Indian government allocated a budget of Rs 65,307 crore to the six major scientific research agencies in the financial year 2025-26. In a response to a parliamentary question, the Ministry of Science and Technology stated that the governmental spending on these departments has increased by 57 per cent YoY to Rs 41,581 crore.
The six governmental scientific research agencies include —Department of Science & Technology (DST), Department of Scientific & Industrial Research/ Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR/CSIR), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Department of Space (DOS), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES). These 6 are the foremost agencies responsible for carrying out scientific research and funding other research institutions.
Total scientific research spending
Furthermore, in a response to another parliamentary query, the Ministry of Science and Technology said that total central government spending on scientific research, development, and infrastructure stood at 0.66 per cent in FY20. In the following fiscal year, the spending was reduced to 0.64 per cent of GDP.
The state governments spent a total of Rs 8,476 crore on scientific research and development in FY23. With a total spending of Rs 1,002 crore in the year, Uttar Pradesh tops the list of states with the highest budget spending on R&D. Gujarat and Punjab rank in second and third spot with total R&D spending of Rs 922 crore and Rs 697 crore, respectively.
Deep tech spending
India has initiated several programs for the promotion of deep tech in various areas such as AI, robotics, automation, biotechnology, renewable energy, climate tech, drones, and small nuclear reactors. These programmes are run by various departments of the Ministry of Science, and their funding is also decentralised.
One major deep tech program by India is the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems, which is aimed at developing large language models for the advancement of generative AI technologies. With a total budget of Rs 3,660 crore, the programme is underdeveloped in a partnership with 25 reputed institutions such as IIT Kharagpur, IIT Bombay, IISC Bengaluru and more.
Another such deep tech initiative by the Ministry of Science is the Electric Vehicle Mission, which has a budget of Rs 3,10 crore, is working on R&D in electric vehicles.