Indian Railways Set to Launch a Policy Towards Promoting Private Sector R&D

The Government of India has earmarked 25% of Defence R&D budget in Union Budget 2022-23 for the private sector. We are further delighted with the statement of the Hon’ble Minister for Railways, Mr. Ashwani Vaishnaw that “The Indian Railways will come up with a policy in the next 7 to 8 days where Private Sector R&D would become an integral part or rather major part (with 90% allocation) of the Railway R&D budget.” This is a landmark step towards operationalising the vision of our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for the “Atmanirbhar Bharat” and “Make-in-India” programme not only in Defence Sector but also in the important Railways segment.

Mr. Tribhuvan Darbari MD & CEO Texmaco Defence Systems, Chief Executive Texmaco Rail & Engineering and Chairman CII Sub-Committee on Defence and Aerospace (ER), stated that “the relation between R&D and economic growth is well established and for a developing economy like India, sustained investments in R&D and rapid commercialization of the R&D, are critical enablers to achieve economic and social progress.”

Identifying the need for increased investment in R&D, the government is proactively making policies to make India a leading R&D hub in Asia. The government has also announced numerous progressive initiatives such as “Make in India”, “Start-up India” and “Digital India” that would play an important role in the R&D sector.

Despite global headwinds, India has been able to maintain a steady growth rate and continues to be one of the fastest-growing economies. This also provides an opportunity to the private sector to catalyze investments in R&D in India which in turn will stimulate expenditure of GDP in the R&D sector.