Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development (S&TED)

Policy Update
Sai Srinesh Duppati

Introduction

Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development (S&TED) can be understood as efforts to promote entrepreneurship by turning advances in science and technology into practical business opportunities through institutional support and innovation ecosystems. While India does not have the same program name, various programs and schemes in the scientific, technology, and startup ecosystems exemplify the spirit of S&TED.

This study explores the recent policy trends of Science & Technology Entrepreneurship in India, examples of contemporary driving S&TED momentum developments, and budgetary allocations in S&TED. However, India has made significant advancements in its ancient civilisation, adopting technological advancements to create efficient goods and services for enhancing the economy. So, we must understand the role of the Incubation ecosystem for start-ups and Deep-tech innovation by an established institutional framework to demonstrate the transformation of India’s S&TED landscape into a globally competitive arena.

Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development in Indian institutions and framework

The National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), by the Government of India under the aegis of the Department of Science and Technology, supports various programs on science, technology, and innovation-based entrepreneurship, and enables promotion of knowledge-driven and technology-intensive ventures/ startups. Also, NSTEDB serves as a nodal framework for developing scientific entrepreneurship ecosystems in India.

NIDHI (National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations): NIDHI is an umbrella program conceived and developed by the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Division of NSTEDB of DST, Government of India, in 2016, for promoting science and technology-based entrepreneurship and the startup ecosystem across the country. This program aims to nurture startups through scouting, supporting, and scaling of innovations. NIDHI aims to promote national interest in developing wealth and creating jobs by driving the entrepreneurship ecosystem. However, some key components of NIDHI are designed to support ideators and innovators since their early startup journey and link them to the market value chain.

Key components of NIDHI:

NIDHI-Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR): Inspiring graduate students to take entrepreneurship by providing a fellowship.
NIDHI-Promotion and Acceleration of Young and Aspiring Technology Entrepreneurs (PRAYAS): To support innovators and startups technically and financially from idea to Prototype stage.
NIDHI-Inclusive-Technology Business Incubator (iTBI)
NIDHI – Technology Business Incubator (TBI)
NIDHI -Seed Support Program (SSP)
NIDHI Accelerator
NIDHI -Center of Excellence (CoE): to nurture startups

EDII’s Innovation & Technology Department: EDII (The Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India) has been working closely with government departments like the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) to promote technology-led entrepreneurship through various activities, capacity building programs, impact assessment studies, and other interventions to nurture and leverage the power of science, technology, and innovation in entrepreneurship.

Recent Policy & Budget Trends

Union Budget 2025-2026 Focus:

R&D and Innovation Push: 20,000 crores have been earmarked to carry out a private sector-led R&D and Innovation project outlined in the July Budget. This has defined a comprehensive strategy for promoting innovation, research, and technical breakthroughs as a critical pillar of the country’s economy and worldwide competitiveness.
PM Research Fellowship: 10,000 fellowships intended for research in premier institutes like IITs and IISc transition from research to Entrepreneurship. Holding a budget for fellowships in the country’s eminent institutions may pool up significant numbers of research practitioners across the country in the long run of science and technology ecosystems.
Bio-RIDE Scheme: A massive 242% rise in funding reflects DST’s renewed emphasis on biotechnology entrepreneurship, which will reflect the bedrock of the biotech institutions framework and programs towards a sustainable pathway in biotechnology entrepreneurship ecosystems.
AI Centers of Excellence: Budget 2025 allocated 100 crore to catalyse AI-driven innovation and entrepreneurship. AI Centers of Excellence are a strong indication of India’s desire to build indigenous AI solutions that are larger, wider, and more adapted to its specific requirements in healthcare, education, agriculture, government, and the military. This might foster collaborations between researchers, industry leaders, and startups. These centers will involve every dynamic personality in the country to boost their technical knowledge through hubs and awareness of cyber fraud, connect the linguistic cultures, and promote economic diversity. Altogether, this acts as a new era of AI-based startups in India.

National Mission Level Interventions:

National Quantum Mission: The Union cabinet of the Government of India approved the National Quantum Mission with a cost of INR 6003.65 crore from 2023-24 to 2030-31. As part of this mission, Quantum key distribution (QKD) satellites are being developed by ISRO to provide secure communication.
Digital Science Park, Thiruvananthapuram: Modelled as the first of its kind, it has been constructed as India’s first digital science park, with a budget of 1000 crore allocated by the Kerala government.

State-Level Innovation Moves:

Maharashtra Startup & Innovation Policy 2025: The state cabinet launched the Maharashtra Startup & Innovation Policy 2025, which intends to create 1.25 lakh entrepreneurs and 50,000 firms over the next five years using a 500 crore Maha Fund. Maharashtra has the largest number of startups in the country, with 29,146 by May 31, 2025. It possesses 18% of the total startups across the country. Government departments must allocate 0.5% of their budget to Innovation policy.
NITI Aayog Recommendation: In a report, NITI Aayog urges all states to raise fund allocation to the Science and Technology Council to up to 0.5% of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) to drive innovation and technology-led growth.
IISER Kolkata Incubator Launch: A technology business incubator, which was inaugurated at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata (IISER-Kolkata), will support technology and business development in key sectors, including healthcare, AI/ML solutions, agriculture and allied fields, renewable energy, sustainability, and earth and climate sciences.

Contemporary Examples Driving S&TED Momentum

Global EV Manufacturing in India: VinFast launched its first overseas manufacturing plant in the Thoothukudi district, Tamilnadu which is valued at 16,000 crores, enabling exports and mass production of EV vehicles. This boosts technological advancement and creates jobs and wealth for locals and nationals.
Tesla’s Entry into India’s EV market: Tesla, an American automobile company, has formally stepped into India’s electric vehicle market with its first experience center in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex. However, entry-level cars set a high price of 60 lakh for the imported Model Y, which did not attract enough audience to pay interest in the contemporary EV market.
T-Hub Hyderabad and T-Works: A progressive Initiative by the govt of Telangana to robust Incubation and prototyping services, nurturing hardware and software entrepreneurship through funding. T-Hub has scaled more than 2000 startups to date, setting up a new era for startup ideators with international access.
Atal Innovation Mission (AIM): This mission has helped more than 3500 startups and created 32,000 jobs with prior women founders. Also, the academic regional hubs, such as Hubli Sandbox, facilitate innovation in agrotech, fintech, and social enterprises
Accel’s new focus on advanced manufacturing prioritises investors’ interest in IP-led deep-tech startups, with funding directed at robotics, semiconductors, EV parts, and space-enabled materials.

Challenges:

Deep-Tech Funding and Scale-up Bottlenecks

Deep-tech funding dropped dramatically by 77% in 2023 compared to 2022. The main reasons include investors’ preference for quick returns, the longer development cycles required for deep-tech innovations, and the lack of scaling capital. This undermines the essentiality of deep-tech funding and represents a key challenge that needs to be addressed.
Funding Gaps in Biotech
India is poised for explosive growth in the biotech sector, yet significant funding gaps persist. The long development cycles make investors and venture capitalists cautious, pushing startups to rely heavily on government grants and incubators for survival and growth.
Tier-II/III Startups Struggling for Visibility & Fund Access
A report cited by Nagrika notes that while 40% of small-city startups cite funding as a major barrier, only about 12% manage to secure pre-seed funding, and a mere 2% advance to Series-A funding.
Uneven Ecosystem & Funding Distribution
Only 37 startups from Telangana (a Tier-II region) have received ₹600 crore under the “Fund of Funds for Startups” initiative—far lower than the much higher figures seen in states like Karnataka and Maharashtra. This highlights the persistent regional funding disparity.
India’s Innovation Ecosystem Lags Behind
A Financial Times analysis argues that despite India’s large pool of engineering talent, the country lacks strong technology transfer frameworks and continues to face the challenge of “brain drain.” Additionally, the limited availability of domestic venture capital further restricts startup growth.

Conclusion

India’s Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development ecosystem is a robust and strategic roadmap for wealth and job creation. These interventions, carried out in collaboration with government departments, academic institutions, industry leaders, and startups, are instrumental in strengthening India’s technological capabilities. Such large-scale partnerships bolster the country’s global competitiveness. The government, through significant budgetary allocations and the support of dedicated science and technology departments, has increasingly prioritised ideators and innovators, thereby fostering the growth of technology-intensive ventures and startups across India.

The above contexts reflect India’s institutional and policy frameworks in this era of globalisation, science, and technology development. A country like India needs to meet its own unique needs to build technology ecosystems backed by significant growth in entrepreneurship. The relevance of contemporary examples of science and technology entrepreneurship ecosystems is much needed to assimilate the country’s creditworthiness and geopolitics.

Also, it’s high time for India to address the challenges mentioned for better growth in every corner of the country by fulfilling the entrepreneurial needs and balancing the venture capitalists’ needs for long-term development cycles in science and technology entrepreneurship development. The role of young aspiring entrepreneurs prioritising women founders may add a symbolic approach in the entrepreneurial market, and be the yardstick for indigenous knowledge in science and technology entrepreneurship for a sustainable and developed India.

References

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About the contributor: Sai Srinesh Duppati is a Research Intern at IMPRI and finished his Master’s degree in Economics from Pondicherry University.

Acknowledgement: The author extends his sincere gratitude to the IMPRI team and Ms. Aasthaba Jadeja for her invaluable guidance throughout the process.

Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organisation.