There are several schemes and incentives undertaken, from time to time, by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the central level authority as well as by the State Governments. These schemes largely aim to build strong science and technology infrastructure in the country, which can further the process of innovation, promote technology commercialization and thus, can help to raise socio-economic conditions of the people.
One of the main initiatives taken in this direction is the launch of Technology Promotion, Development and Utilization (TDPU) Programme which is aimed at promoting technology development and industrial research in the country as well as encouraging its utilization by various section of economy, be it industry, academic, scientific institution and the society at large. The programmes and activities under this scheme are centered around promoting industrial R&D; development and commercialization of technologies; acquisition, management and export of technologies; promotion of consultancy capabilities; etc.
Under TDPU Programme, there is one very important programme component called "Technology Development and Innovation Programme (TDIP)", which aims to develop technologies and promote innovation in the country. TDIP is sub-divided into 2 programmes, namely:-
- Technology Development and Demonstration Program (TDDP) - It was earlier known as 'Programme Aimed at Technological Self-reliance (PATSER)'. It is a plan scheme of Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) to promote industry’s efforts in development and demonstration of indigenous technologies, development of capital goods and absorption of imported technologies. That is, its broad objectives for achieving self-sufficiency in industrial growth are:-
- Supporting industry for technology absorption, development and demonstration.
- Building indigenous capabilities for development and commercialisation of contemporary products and process of high impact.
- Involvement of national research organisations in joint projects with industry.
- Technology evaluation in selected sectors.
To achieve such objectives, DSIR provides on a selective basis partial financial support to research, development, design and engineering (RDDE) projects proposed by industry in the following areas:
- Development and Demonstration of new or improved product and process technologies including those for specialized capital goods, for both domestic and export markets.
- Absorption and upgradation of imported technology.
The partial financial support by DSIR is primarily meant for covering expenditure involved in prototype development and pilot plant work, test and evaluation of products flowing from such R&D, user trials, etc. Bulks of costs of the project are from the industry’s resources.
In general, following types of proposals for RDDE projects are considered for partial financial support:
- Projects undertaken solely by in-house R&D units of industrial firms.
- Projects undertaken jointly by Industry and National R&D Organisations and Institutions.
- Collaborative projects of common interest to the concerned sector/area, proposed by a group of industries/users, national research organisations, etc.
- Projects may cover products and processes in various important industries such as metallurgy, electrical, electronics, instrumentation, mechanical engineering,earth moving and industrial machinery, chemicals & explosives, etc.
- Technopreneur Promotion Programme (TePP) was launched to tap the vast innovative potential of the citizen of India. TePP is a mechanism to promote individual innovators to become technology-based entrepreneurs (Technopreneurs). Thus, its main objectives are to:-
- Promote and support untapped creativity of individual innovators.
- Assist the individual innovators to become technology based entrepreneurs.
- Assist the technopreneur in networking and forge linkages with other constituents of the innovation chain for commercialization of their developments.
The activities under TePP include providing financial support to selected and screened individual innovators having original ideas for converting them into working models , prototypes and so on. TePP assistance is provided to the innovator to meet expenditure on the following:
- R&D/Engineering consultancy
- Procure small equipment,tools etc. required
- Raw Material/ Accessories (for prototype/process trials),
- Fabrication cost (for prototypes)
- Patent guidance and support
- Testing & Trials
- any other relevant costs
TePP support to the innovators is limited to 90% of the total cost of the project and remaining 10% is to be borne by the innovator/inventor.
Further, 'Innovation of Science Pursuit for Inspire Research (INSPIRE)' is another such innovative programs proposed by the Department of Science and Technology for attraction of talent to science. The basic objective of INSPIRE would be to communicate to the youth population of the country the excitements of creative pursuit of science and attract talent to the study of science at an early stage and build the required critical human resource pool for strengthening and expanding the Science & Technology system and R&D base. INSPIRE Scheme has included three components. They are: (i) Scheme for Early Attraction of Talents for Science (SEATS); (ii) Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE); and (iii) Assured Opportunity for Research Careers (AORC).