Why investing in green technology is a strategic imperative for India—and how the RDI fund can help
Mint - Opinion · Published 9 November 2026 · Last updated
Investing in early-stage green technologies through the Research, Development and Innovation Fund is a strategic imperative for India to secure critical mineral supply chains, reduce import dependence, and achieve strategic autonomy.
Key points
- India's low research and development spending creates heavy reliance on imported technologies that are challenging and expensive to access, stalling economic competitiveness and growth.
- The Research, Development and Innovation Fund is a government-funded mechanism identified to break import shackles by investing in high-impact technology areas including energy.
- The Production-Linked Incentive scheme heavily focuses on manufacturing green technologies like batteries and solar panels but still relies on imported technologies.
- Sodium-ion batteries are now reaching commercial scale, and electrolyser designs for manufacturing green hydrogen are still evolving rapidly.
- The Research, Development and Innovation Fund can prioritize critical mineral processing, which represents the tightest checkpoint in the clean energy supply chain.
- Private investors avoid critical mineral processing due to high capital intensity, technology risk, and thin margins, making patient and concessional capital necessary.
- Battery technology is evolving through diverse chemistries including sodium-ion and zinc-based chemistries alongside solid and semi-solid electrolytes.
- Permanent magnet motors rely on rare-earth magnets concentrated in one country, prompting the need to design out rare earths rather than merely diversify.
- Imported battery packs not designed for extreme heat contributed to early electric vehicle fires, highlighting an India-specific thermal management challenge.
- Tandem cells represent the next efficiency frontier in advanced solar cells and materials, where no incumbent currently dominates.
Background
- India has historically suffered from low research and development spending relative to global peers, creating systemic technology import dependencies.
- The Indian government instituted mechanisms like the Production-Linked Incentive scheme to boost domestic manufacturing capacity in green technologies such as solar panels and batteries.
- Private sector entities previously attempted foreign technology acquisitions to secure green supply chains, but their success remained limited.
Prelims facts and Mains angle for this issue are in the full SWAदेSH note.
Original report: Mint - Opinion