Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a significant boost to India’s innovation ecosystem, promising a Rs 1 lakh crore fund to drive research, deepen industrial innovation, and support over 2.5 lakh startups, signalling a move beyond software into high-tech sectors.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi used his Independence Day address to urge young Indians to think big, promising that the state would back new ideas with money and policy support. He pointed to the rapid growth of the startup ecosystem and said the government’s Rs 1 lakh crore innovation push was intended to remove one of the biggest barriers facing would-be founders: access to capital.
Modi said more than 2.5 lakh registered startups have emerged under the Startup India programme, arguing that the country’s younger generation is already helping to create jobs as well as seek them. The initiative, launched in 2016, has become one of India’s main tools for encouraging entrepreneurship, with government support ranging from tax relief and easier compliance to funding schemes for early-stage companies.
He also highlighted the government’s wider research and development drive, including the Research, Development and Innovation scheme approved by the Union Cabinet in July 2025 and later launched by Modi in November. According to official and reporting summaries, the fund is designed to channel long-term, low-cost finance into strategic sectors such as energy security, climate action, deep technology, quantum technologies, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and the digital economy.
The broader message was that India wants its startup story to move beyond software and consumer apps into deeper industrial and scientific innovation. Analysts and government figures have noted that the country is already one of the world’s largest startup hubs, but officials are now trying to push more private money into research-intensive areas where development cycles are longer and risks are higher.
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