ANRF spent just 61% of its budget for 2025-2026, nothing in first 2 years: Parliament panel report

ANRF Grants: The central research body, Anusandhan National Research Foundation, failed to utilise any of its Rs 2,000 crore budget in the first two years and has spent just 61% of its budget for the current financial year, 2025-2026, a report of the parliamentary standing committee on science technology, environment, forests and climate change shows.

Led by Bhubaneswar Kalita, a member of Rajya Sabha from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the committee found that the “fund utilisation remained zero for the last two consecutive years (2023-24 and 2024-25)”, the report stated. These were also the first two years after the ANRF – a key proposal of the National Education Policy 2020 – was established in August 2023. Every year since, it has been allocated Rs 2,000 crore in the budget.

The department of science and technology (DST) responded that in 2023-24, the fund was finalised and was in the "preparatory phase” for the ANRF and in 2024-25 the emphasis was on establishment of the “institutional, administrative and financial architecture” required to set-up “a newly-constituted statutory body”, the report recounts.

DST must ‘optimally utilise’ budget: Panel

The ANRF Bill was passed in the monsoon session of parliament in August 2023. The law replaced the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) with an aim to “democratise research and research funding in India”.

However, the pattern of poor utilisation continues. This year, the ANRF has spent Rs 1,191 till January, 2026. This is just 59% of its original budget of Rs 2,000 crore and 61% of the revised outlay, Rs 1,948 crore. The panel said it is “apprehensive” about the department’s ability to utilise the whole amount by the time the financial year ends on March 31. It recommended that the DST “optimally utilise the funds…to strengthen the research framework of the country”.

DST explains slow pace

The department informed the panel that the ANRF began functioning in February 2024, with “no programmatic approvals or financial sanctions” undertaken in 2023-24, while 2024–25 was devoted to “institutional structuring, scheme design, and stakeholder consultations; no fund disbursal took place during that financial year”. The first ANRF governing board meeting was held in September 2024 where the executive Council was authorised to develop and implement programmes aligned with the objectives of the ANRF.

In 2025-26, the ANRF executive council approved 12 new programmes in strategic and high-impact technology domains, which are “at various stages of implementation, including issuance of calls, and financial sanctioning”. Also, under these programmes, 2,500 institutions have been onboarded under the “TSA Hybrid model” to streamline “fund flow mechanisms”.

ANRF PAIR programme success

However, the report also lauds the Partnership for Accelerated Innovation and Research (PAIR) programme and its hub-and-spoke model. The ANRF- PAIR programme was launched in November 2024. The committee recommended the department to expand the ‘Spoke’ network and include “at least one state university or college from every aspirational district”. “This will ensure that the mentor-mentee relationship transcends elite institutions and reaches the grass-roots level of the national education systems,” stated the committee report.

The ANRF PAIR programme operates through a hub-and-spoke model where it connects well-established research institutions as hubs with emerging ones as spokes to “foster mentorship and collaborative growth”. Till date, seven networks involving seven hubs and 42 spokes have been approved, with each network eligible for up to Rs 100 crore in support over five years, the report stated. Additionally, the Prime Minister Professorship, launched in July 2025, has already approved 21 positions across 20 States and one UT to embed eminent scientists in less-endowed institutions for strategic leadership and mentorship, the committee informed.

The report also stated that the ANRF is building a “framework for donations from individuals, CSR, and the diaspora”, similar to the PM CARES model.