How many Second Level Fund Managers were announced in the first cohort of the Research, Development and Innovation Fund?

The correct answer is the Anusandhan National Research Foundation, which works under the Department of Science and Technology in the Ministry of Science and Technology. The fund is run by an Independent Business Unit housed within that foundation, and the foundation's Executive Council is one of the stages a fund manager's proposal must clear before it reaches the Empowered Group of Secretaries. Option A is wrong because NITI Aayog advises on policy and does not manage investment funds of this kind. Option B names the country's largest chain of research laboratories, which conducts research rather than channelling patient capital to enterprises. Option D is a development finance institution for small industry, a plausible-sounding home for a fund but not the one chosen here. The first call for applications from prospective managers went out in January 2026.

The correct answer is Technology Readiness Level 4 and above. Eligible Technology Enterprises working at that level or higher can receive capital channelled by the Second Level Fund Managers, which means the fund steps in once an idea has moved past paper and early concept work and has been validated in a laboratory setting. Option A would include the earliest conceptual stages, which the fund is not designed for; option C would restrict support to technologies close to full deployment, by which point commercial money is usually easier to find; and option D is wrong because the whole purpose of the fund is to support work before a product reaches the market. The design addresses a financing gap that has long limited private investment in emerging and strategic technologies, and managers must raise private capital matching the fund's own contribution.

The correct answer is TRL-4 to TRL-6. Every one of the four molecules, PEPR111 for neuromuscular disorders and oncology, PEPRX101 for alopecia, PEPR202 for neuropathy and PEPR112 for DMD, stands at Technology Readiness Level four today, and the stated purpose of the money is to carry each of them up to Technology Readiness Level six. That stretch covers advanced preclinical work, the studies that enable an investigational new drug filing, formulation development and the preparation needed before a trial on human volunteers can begin. Option A, the first three levels, describes work already completed before this agreement was reached. Option C begins where the project ends, so it would describe a later phase of clinical development rather than this one. Option D stretches the span far wider than the agreement provides and would take the molecules through to a marketed product. The climb is planned over three years with global contract research organisation networks assisting on validation.

The correct answer is Rs 172 crore. The project titled VIGOR: Advancing AI-Discovered Molecules from Bench to Clinic has been costed at that figure in full, and the Technology Development Board is carrying Rs 86 crore of it from the Research Development and Innovation Fund, which works out to exactly half the outlay. A candidate who remembers only the board's share will be tempted by a smaller total, which is why options A and B are offered: neither Rs 108 crore nor Rs 145 crore matches the cost stated for the project, and neither is double the board's contribution. Option D, Rs 250 crore, overstates the project and would leave the board's share well under half. The arithmetic relationship is worth fixing in memory, since examiners often ask for the sponsor's share and the project cost in the same question. The support reaches the company as Optionally Convertible Debt, and the work is spread over three years.

The correct answer is Peptris Technologies Private Limited, Bengaluru. The Technology Development Board, which works under the Department of Science and Technology, signed its agreement with this Bengaluru company in Karnataka and committed Rs 86 crore from the Research Development and Innovation Fund towards the VIGOR programme, whose full cost is Rs 172 crore. The support is being routed as Optionally Convertible Debt. Option A, Biocon Limited, is not the firm named in the agreement, even though it too is based in Bengaluru, so the city alone cannot settle the question. Option C, Bharat Biotech International of Hyderabad, has no part in this arrangement; the announcement names neither that company nor the city of Hyderabad. Option D, Serum Institute of India of Pune, is similarly outside this agreement. Only Peptris Technologies is described as holding the artificial-intelligence platform on which the four candidates PEPR111, PEPRX101, PEPR202 and PEPR112 were discovered, and only that company will carry them from Technology Readiness Level four to Technology Readiness Level six.