New Delhi: Several members of a committee set up by the Modi government a year ago to fund research and development in the private sector have approved of disbursing its funds to companies they have interests in. This has come to light in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha provided on Thursday (July 30) by the department of science and technology.Seven members of the 12-member Investment Committee of the Technology Development Board (TDB), which selects companies that can receive disbursements from a Rs 1 lakh crore corpus of the Research, Development and Innovation Fund (RDIF), have made investments in 16 entities selected for receiving money from the fund.The Rs 1 lakh crore RDIF is meant to be distributed over six years, in the form of debt (long-term loans), equity or a mix of the two. The Rajya Sabha question was raised by MP Praveen Chakravarthy.While the science and technology department is part of the Union ministry of science and technology, headed by Dr Jitendra Singh, who holds independent charge, the fund itself was inaugurated in November 2025 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Cabinet cleared the fund in July last year.The seven members of the investment committee in the department of science include prominent figures in the technology sector such as Saurabh Srivastava, former head of the lobby group NASSCOM; Anand Deshpande, who runs IT services firm Persistent Networks; Sudhir Mehta of Pinnacle Industries, an auto parts company; and two individuals who hold top positions in Tata Group companies.They also include Anand Deshpande of Serigen Mediproducts Pvt. Ltd., a specialised health care company; Debashish Bhattacharjee of Neo Seekermetals Pvt. Ltd., a battery manufacturer; Gopal Srinivasan of Agnikul Cosmos Pvt. Ltd, a space technology company; and Sanjay Nayak of Tejas Networks Ltd, a part of the Tata Group of companies, in the networking equipment business.They have approved investments in companies that are operating in a range of sectors. Each company appears to be working in a sector listed by the RDIF as a priority. More than one committee member has supported some companies. However, the rules specified by the RDIF include that the “Investment Committee must be constituted in a way that avoids potential conflicts of interest”.The department has said in its response in parliament that there is a policy on conflict of interest for the Investment Committee. “Yes, the Technology Development Board (TDB) has a conflict-of-interest policy for members of the Investment Committee,” says the response, without providing more detail.The government’s FAQ on the scheme says it has “strict conflict of interest provisions” that operate “across approval and investment levels. These are monitored continuously by RDIF and its leadership tiers”.Complex structure for the RDIFAs per the system adopted by the government to distribute the funds of RDIF, a TDB would fall in the category of a “Second Level Fund Manager” or SLFM, an agency authorised to allocate money from the RDIF.Each TDB is supposed to have its own Investment Committee, which is further supposed to be monitored by various government bodies, including the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), which the Modi government established in 2023.The government calls the approval process for SLFMs “distributed“, meaning that the TDBs require clearance from the RDIF, the Executive Council of the ANRF (which is further dependent on its “expert advisory committee”) and an Empowered Group of Secretaries.“All three entities must agree on selecting a fund manager [TDB/SLFM], before RDIF can finance it,” the government says in a FAQ, referring to how the SLFM is to be set up.The ANRF says on its web site that it is a body to provide “high-level strategic directions for research, innovation and entrepreneurship in the fields of natural sciences, including mathematical sciences, engineering and technology, environmental and earth sciences, health and agriculture and scientific and technological interfaces of humanities and social sciences”.“The Executive Council of ANRF comprises Union Secretaries, chaired by the Principal Scientific Advisor to theGovernment of India. EGoS comprises Union Secretaries, chaired by the Cabinet Secretary. This protects RDIF investment decisions from compromise,” it says.The rules also say that “Each SLFM’s Investment Committee shall vet the selection of specific projects to be funded”.However, the SLFMs are not allowed to have government representation and the Executive Committe of the ANRF does not have a say in the membership of the Investment Committee.Interestingly, the RDIF itself is a Special Purpose Vehicle under the ANRF.The RDIF describes itself as a “flagship initiative under the Department of Science and Technology” and claims it has been “designed to accelerate investment in India’s R&D and Innovation ecosystem”. It says it “shall support private sector enterprises, startups, and industries working in sunrise and strategic sectors”.The RDIF also keeps the public sector out, saying in a FAQ on its web site that it does not provide funds to the public sector or government entities “unless they are involved in strategic projects in partnership with the private sector”.