Credit and Finance for MSMEs: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday approved increasing the funding to MSMEs and startups under the Technology Development Fund (TDF) scheme of Ministry of Defence. The scheme, which supports indigenous development of components, products, systems and technologies, will now have an upper limit of Rs 50 crore per project from Rs 10 crore so far.
Importantly, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech had announced earmarking 25 per cent of defence R&D budget for private industry, startups and academia. Hence, the increase in financing is in line with the budget announcement and will give further support the government’s aim for self-reliance in the defence sector, defence ministry noted.
