Insufficient assistance for Indian deep tech startups: research

Indian R&D Organizations’ Incubation Support for Start-Ups

• Only one in four public-funded R&D organizations in India provide incubation support to start-ups.

• Only one in six organizations support ‘deep tech’ start-ups.

• Only 15% collaborate with industry overseas.

• Half of these organizations open their facilities to outside researchers and students.

• The study, commissioned by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser and executed by the Confederation of Indian Industry, surveyed labs on 62 parameters.

• Labs from the “strategic sector” were excluded due to their sensitive nature of work.

• The Union government’s R&D expenditure was around ₹55,685 crore in 2020-21.

• Around 25% of participating institutions reported spending between 75% and 100% of their budget on R&D.

• Many labs reported a decrease in permanent staff and increased reliance on contractual staff.

• The median share of young researchers increased to around 58% in 2022-23.

• The report advocates for every lab to review their existing mandates.