National Research Foundation Outlay to be ₹50,000 crore, over 5 years

To strengthen the overall research ecosystem of the country, the Union Budget FY 2021-22 announced a slew of new initiatives to boost Innovation and R&D in the country. While presenting the Budget in Parliament, Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, proposed initiatives covering digital payments, space sector and deep ocean explorations.

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The Finance Minister proposed an outlay of Rs 50,000 crore, spread over five years, for National Research Foundation.

Rs 1,500 crore has been proposed for a scheme that will provide financial incentive to promote digital modes of payment and further boost digital transactions.

A new initiative called National Language Translation Mission (NTLM) has been proposed that will digitise the wealth of governance-and-policy related knowledge on the Internet and be made available in major Indian languages.

New Space India Limited (NSIL), a PSU under the Department of Space, will execute the PSLV-CS51 launch, carrying the Amazonia Satellite from Brazil, along with a few smaller Indian satellites.

Four Indian astronauts are also being trained on Generic Space Flight aspects, in Russia for the Gaganyaan Mission, slated to be launched for December 2021.

To better understand the realm of Oceans Smt. Sitharaman proposed to launch a Deep Ocean Mission with a budget outlay of more than Rs 4,000 crores, over five years.