Investment in R&D in terms of Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD) has been consistently increasing over the years and during the last 10 years, the GERD of India in gross terms has increased by 3 times. Govt. has been making concerted efforts to encourage private sector to invest into R&D. Corporates can invest in technology business incubators or contribute in research efforts carried out by institutions and national research laboratories as a part of their CSR. Several steps have been taken to incentivize the private sector’s R&D participation by improving the ease of doing business in the STI activities; introducing flexible tools for public procurement; creating avenues for collaborative STI funding through portfolio-based funding mechanisms such as Public-Private-Partnerships and other innovative hybrid funding mechanisms.

A collaborative model from industry to map best innovation practices will take India to the league of top 25 countries in the Global Innovation Index from the 48th rank in 2020 and make it the innovation powerhouse of the world, Commerce & Industry Minister said. Minister announced 80% reduction on fee for filing of IPRs for all recognised educational institution in India and abroad. The key achievements highlighted by Goyal include granting of 28,391 patents in 2020-21 as compared to 4,227 grants during 2013-14 (572% growth), reduction in time of patent examination from 72 months in December 2016 to 12-24 months in Dec 2020 and 1.42 million trademark registrations in last four years in comparison to 1.1 million during the previous 75 years (1940-2015).

Centre has formed 11 committees, each led by a ministry, to prepare action plans for transitioning from a linear to a circular economy in their respective focus areas. Aiming to deal with e-waste as part of the larger plan of the govt. to encourage circular economy or ensuring zero to minimal wastage in the use of electronics and electrical sector, the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology has formulated a policy paper that deals with these issues. The paper, "Circular Economy in Electronics and Electrical Sector," focuses on the life cycle of electronics including stages of raw material acquisition, design, manufacturing /production stage, consumption to end of life (e-waste) management, and secondary raw materials utilisation.

Government of India has announced the National Hydrogen Mission for making hydrogen roadmap for the country. Department of Science & Technology (DST) has launched Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Program to support research on Hydrogen and Fuel Cell that aims to develop transformational technologies to reduce the cost of hydrogen production, distribution & storage, diversify feedstock available for economic hydrogen production, enhance flexibility of power grid, and reduce emissions through novel uses of low-cost hydrogen. DST has supported twenty-nine projects and two Energy Storage Platforms on Hydrogen under this program.

India makes clean energy commitments at UN summit India at the first leader-level meeting on energy under the UN General Assembly in 40 years has made commitments to increase renewable energy installed capacity to 450 GW by 2030 and develop and implement a National Hydrogen Energy Mission to scale up annual green hydrogen production to 1 MT by 2030. Also, it announced to begin a Production Linked Incentive Scheme to add 10 GW solar PV manufacturing capacity by 2025. India's announcements were among new multi-billion-dollar commitments made to countries to increase renewables and access to electricity and clean cooking technologies.

India and the UK have launched a new workstream to promote industrial energy efficiency, under the Clean Energy Ministerial's (CEM) Industrial Deep Decarbonization Initiative (IDDI), the power ministry said in a statement. This year, India, along with the Government of the United Kingdom, launched a new workstream to promote industrial energy efficiency under the CEM's IDDI coordinated by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The IDDI initiative has been supported by Germany and Canada, with more countries expected to join soon. The objective is to infuse green technologies and stimulate demand for low-carbon industrial material. The commitment hinges on effective deployment of low carbon technologies in energy-intensive sectors like iron and steel, cement, petrochemicals. He elaborated that government policies have resulted in substantial savings in energy on the demand side.

On the 75th Independence Day, Prime Minister formally announced the launch of National Hydrogen Mission to push plans to generate carbon-free fuel from renewable. He also has set a target of 2047 for India to achieve self-reliance in energy. India can achieve self-reliance in energy through a mix of a gas-based economy, blending 20 % ethanol in petrol and moving towards electric mobility. India has achieved the target of 100 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity ahead of the set target. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is working on technology to develop hydrogen-spiked compressed natural gas or H-CNG.

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change released Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2021, prohibiting identified single use plastic items by 2022.

The parties have agreed to launch negotiations on key issues such as market access, investment protection and geographical indications. Talks with the EU on a free trade agreement are set to begin later this month after eight years with the commerce ministry scheduling a meeting among the stakeholders. Sources said the dates for the first few sessions with the EU representative have been set before the end of this month. The parties have agreed to launch negotiations on key issues such as market access, investment protection and geographical indications. The preliminary talks on the Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) will be based on the initial recommendations of industry groups.

India and UK are aiming to launching the negotiations on FTA by November 2021. Proposed FTA between India & UK is expected to unlock extraordinary business opportunity and generate jobs. Both sides have renewed their commitment to boosting trade in a manner which benefits all. Since the ‘Declaration’ on launch of Enhanced Trade Partnership, announced by Prime Ministers on 4th May 2021, both countries have made substantial progress on various aspects of partnership.