'Rare to see a policy land so correctly and so rapidly': Ather CEO Tarun Mehta hails RDI fund

Ather Energy co-founder and CEO Tarun Mehta described the government's Rs 1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) fund as a "spectacular success", saying it has arrived at the right time to support India's fast-growing deeptech ecosystem.

At the same time, he urged policymakers to address a policy anomaly that has left EV startups outside the ambit of the Automotive Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.

Speaking at News18's Rising Bharat Summit (South Edition) in a session moderated by Moneycontrol's Chandra R Srikanth, Mehta said the RDI fund has created momentum for hardware and deeptech startups across sectors.

"I think RDI has been a spectacular success by the government. It's rare to see a policy land so correctly and so rapidly in India. Rs 1 lakh crore is a huge corpus aimed at R&D," he said, adding that Ather is among the early recipients of an RDI low-interest loan.

India’s newly launched Rs 1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) scheme under the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) provides long-term financing support for projects in quantum technologies, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence (AI) among other critical sectors.

The scheme was approved by the Union Cabinet and formally launched on November 3, 2025.

Mehta said he had met more deeptech and hardware entrepreneurs in the past 18 months than in the previous 11-and-a-half years, with startups emerging across drones, defence, batteries, space technology and manufacturing equipment.

"Most of the deeptech startups that are emerging today... are not coming up because a VC found them fashionable. So VCs are now forced to figure out what's so freaking fashionable about them," he said, adding that companies such as Ather going public and generating returns have demonstrated that hardware businesses can create significant value despite taking longer to scale.

Mehta also reiterated his call for changes to the Automotive PLI scheme, arguing that startups driving innovation have been inadvertently excluded because of a policy quirk.

"Getting excluded out of Automotive PLI is a pretty big thing, because it's essentially 16% cash back that our competitors are getting," he said.

He said the scheme requires new companies to have zero revenue, while existing companies must have at least Rs 10,000 crore in revenue, leaving startups that have already begun commercialising their products ineligible under either category.

"Our argument has been simple, that please expand this. You need startups," Mehta said. Comparing the EV ecosystem to a train, he added, "Startups are the engine for this train. The bogeys won't go anywhere."

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