To boost innovation, govt to set up Rs. 5,000cr plan

In a bid to boost innovation, the government will soon be setting up Rs. 5,000 crore fund to help entrepreneurs to see their ideas become a reality.

Updated on: Oct 31, 2012, 23:30:26 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

In a bid to boost innovation, the government will soon be setting up Rs. 5,000 crore fund to help entrepreneurs to see their ideas become a reality.

The department of science and technology will soon be seeking finance ministry approval to set up Indian Opportunities Venture Fund to provide initial seed money to innovators to start companies having potential to take innovation to the market.

India provides only about Rs. 1,200 per year for taking innovations to the market whereas United States gives Rs. 29,000 crore and China Rs. 3,000 crore annually. Even smaller European countries provide more for entrepreneurs than India.

Through the new fund the government envisages to start new public private partnerships with young bright minds, those can provide jobs and attract foreign investment.

"The sector has potential to attract annual investment of Rs. 14,000 crore every year and therefore the government help is required for the kick start," a senior government official said.

The money is likely to be provided under the National Entrepreneurial Mission to be headed by Prime Minister and having a national level steering committee under the department to coordinate with other stakeholder ministries.

According to officials, the job of the mission would be to create appropriate measurements, methodologies and systems to track performance across various industries to help entrepreneurs to start business in new sectors.

The mission would also take up the government target to increase the number of incubators --- hubs for innovation --- from present 120 to about 1,000 by 2020.

"Most of the hubs are in the educational institutions having poor linkage with the industry," an official said.

He added the new incubators would have definite linkage with the industry to ensure that the ideas reach market.

Sasha Mirchandani, who started India's first angel investment group Mumbai Angel Network, said funding to take make ideas a reality is difficult and the government help would provide fillip to the sector.

"There is no dearth of talent. We just need to provide them right direction," he told HT.

A department's senior official the government is also looking at how the entrepreneurial mission could be linked with National Skill Development Mission headed by the Prime Minister.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.