The Technology Development Board (TDB) was set up in September 1996. In our country the government has been the largest investor in R&D sector. Private sector participation in R&D has been relatively very poor. Of course, there are reasons for that. There were only a few takers for the Research and Development (R&D) out puts from our research organisations. This is primarily because Indian industries have been reluctant to go to the R&D organisations to tap their potentials and also the other-way round the research organisations were little bothered about the industrial requirements of the time. So there has been a huge gap between the research organisations and industrial institutes. The Technology Development Board was conceived on this backdrop, aimed to bridge this gap through providing a common platform for entrepreneurs and R&D organisations. This proved to be a great success and that is why successive governments have given full support to the TDB.

The primary objective of the board is to promote innovative inventions, may be of a private in- house R&D organisation or government research institute or even an individual inventor- entrepreneur. Through funding or if necessary by other means also, we support innovative inventions that have the potential to become a commercial venture in the market or a service that improves the quality of life of our people.

Well. The TDB will evaluate each proposal on its merits and select technologies that have the above mentioned potentials. The TDB can fund up to 50 percent of the total project cost and the rest of the money the entrepreneur has to mobilise by own. Entrepreneur is free to take loans from other financing agencies.

With in the short span of time, the TDB has created credibility among the financing institutions that helps the entrepreneur to get loans from these organisations. I mean, the financial institutions are confident on those projects, which have been cleared by the TBD.