Indian Government withdraws 3-year rule for deep-tech startups helping early stage innovation

Indian Government opens doors for newly formed deep-tech ventures to gain recognition and financial support, aiming to boost India’s innovation ecosystem.

Under the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), the government has removed the mandatory three-year existence requirement for startups seeking recognition and financial support, in a plan aiming to accelerate India’s deep-tech startup pipeline.

During the 41st Foundation Day of DSIR, the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science & Technology, Dr. Jitendra Singh made an announcement signaling a sharper focus on enabling early-stage innovators who often struggle to access institutional funding. The relaxation in rule allows deep-tech startups to pursue DSIR recognition and loan support without having to wait for the completion of three years of operations an eligibility condition that previously filtered out many first-time founders working on frontier technologies.

According to Dr. Singh, this modification complements the ₹1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund, which primarily targets startups that have already reached a certain level of technological maturity. He also said that for early-stage innovators or startups, a wide basket of schemes already exists across departments such as DST, CSIR, TDB and the removal of the three-year existence requirement is a significant encouragement to help deep-tech startups scale faster, even before they are fully on their own.

Up until now, startups had to prove sustainability over a minimum of three years in order to receive DSIR-linked financial assistance, sometimes up to ₹1 crore through CSIR (the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research) backed programs. That requirement has now been removed, calling it a major enabler that will support new deep-tech ventures while still ensuring proper evaluation based on technological parameters, according to Dr. Singh.

Dr. Singh emphasized that India is becoming a nation that other countries are depending on more and more, in addition to fulfilling the Prime Minister's vision of "Aatmanirbhar Bharat". The removal of the three-year eligibility requirement is motivated by the noble goal of accelerating and sustaining new startups, demonstrating trust that innovators will make responsible use of the opportunity.