Innovation fund may get Rs 100-300 cr

The Budget is likely to allocate Rs 100-300 crore as seed money to kickstart a fund for taking innovation to the ground level.

The India Inclusive Innovation Fund (IIIF) was mooted by Sam Pitroda, the Prime Minister’s advisor on public information, infrastructure and innovations. The Pitroda-led National Innovation Council (NIC) suggested a corpus of Rs 5,000 crore to help encourage innovation that will be useful for the masses.

Last year, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had announced plans to contribute Rs 100 crore to kickstart the programme. Officials now say the fund may get this money or an additional Rs 200 crore in the Budget for FY13.

It was in September 2010 that the government constituted the Pitroda council. The body aims at formulating and implementing a model for inclusive innovation. Its first report was released last year.

The fund will be run by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research with the support of the NIC. The IIIF will operate as a for-profit entity with a focus on social investment.

The NIC was constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to energise innovation initiatives so as to make them a part of the national effort aimed at reducing poverty, improving governance and making development more inclusive.

The Planning Commission, in its approach paper to the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17), had supported the idea for such a fund, saying it will focus on encouraging grassroots innovations that cater to the poor.

Singh had said technological innovations that happened in the country in areas such as space sciences, atomic energy and automobiles have mainly helped only the rich sections of society. Technological innovations have “more and less bypassed” the vast majority of the poor. Hence, there was a need to address such lacunae, he said.

The council’s mandate also includes formulating a roadmap on innovation for the current decade, creating a framework for evolving an Indian model of innovation with a focus on inclusive growth and encouraging central and state governments to innovate.

The NIC also comprises Planning Commission members Arun Maira and K Kasturirangan, former Nasscom chief Kiran Karnik and Tata Sons Executive Director R Gopalakrishnan besides filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor. Industry representatives of the Ficci and the CII are part of the NIC board.