The Technology Development Fund (TDF) Scheme has adopted a flexible funding approach for applicants to encourage participation. Hence, two types of funding mechanisms available under the scheme are given below:

• Reimbursement: The DRDO share of project cost is paid in a maximum of five (05) instalments in the form of reimbursement upon successful achievement of milestones.

• Advance: A staggered approach towards project funding in this scheme is in the form of advance funding subject to a maximum of five (05) “Milestones” of the project. Development Agency (DA) may avail an advance upon producing a Bank Guarantee of the same amount as collateral.

The government has allocated a total of Rs 260 crore under the TDF Scheme, since its inception from 2016 and Rs 64.35 crore has been disbursed as a grant-in-aid to industries for development of defence technologies. The Government provides support to the private industries especially MSMEs and start-ups through TDF Scheme. The details of the scheme are as follows:

TDF Scheme: Technology Development Fund Scheme is a program of Ministry of Defence (MoD) executed by DRDO under “Make-in-India” initiative. The Government has approved TDF Scheme to encourage participation of public/private industries especially MSMEs and start-ups to design and develop various defence technologies indigenously.

A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of TDF scheme has been formulated and approved by Competent Authority in 2016. The SOP describes about the evaluation and assessment criteria.

A total of 41 MSMEs and 20 start-ups have been supported under the TDF Scheme. None of these belongs to Rajasthan. However, a large industry of Rajasthan has been supported under the scheme.

This information was given by Raksha Rajya Mantri Shri Ajay Bhatt in a written reply to Shri PP Chaudhary and Shri Anurag Sharma in Lok Sabha today.

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