The Department of Science & Technology (DST) of India announced a ₹1 lakh crore Research, Development & Innovation (RDI) fund to back deep-tech startups in areas such as AI, robotics, advanced communications and quantum computing. The move is designed to raise the share of early-stage funding in deep-tech from around 10% to 30-50% over five years. DST aims to mobilise both public and private investment to build India’s next-gen tech ecosystem.