Department of Science and Technology (DST, India)

Funds Indian science, technology, innovation, and research commercialization programs across public and private institutions.

Department of Science and Technology (DST India) is India's nodal science department under the Ministry of Science and Technology. Set up in May 1971, it manages an annual budget of about INR 6,067 crore and sits over a wide science-and-innovation portfolio. It also oversees 19+ autonomous research institutions and more than 884 recognised Scientific and Industrial Research Organisations.

Its support runs through subordinate bodies rather than a single open call desk. SERB and ANRF handle extramural research grants, INSPIRE funds student and postdoctoral support, FIST backs institutional infrastructure, NIDHI works on startup incubation, and the Technology Development Board provides soft loans for commercialising startups. The funder reaches hardware, biotech, agritech, AI infrastructure, medtech, materials, energy, climate, quantum, and space projects.

That structure makes DST useful to teams that already know where they fit in the research stack. Applicants look for the right channel by stage: student, lab, institution, or startup. The department's role is coordination as much as funding, with the real delivery carried by its specialist bodies and their own calls.