NIC announces Rs 1000 cr fund to boost innovation

National Innovation Council (NIC), a body to promote new ideas for inclusive development, today announced setting up of a Rs 1,000 crore fund to encourage innovation.

"We will set up a fund to reward innovations. To start with the fund will be set up with a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore which may go up to Rs 5,000 crore. A major portion of the fund will come from the private sector and not the government," Chairman of the Council Sam Pitroda told reporters here after the first meeting of the council.

One of the council members and renowned filmmaker Shekhar Kapur also mooted the idea of staring a television reality show that would provide a platform for the young minds to showcase their innovative ideas for solving the problems of the economy.
    
Set up by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the council is aimed at energising 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 council launched its portal, where a compilation of scientific achievements that can be used to improve the quality of life will be available.
    
The portal will also have a facility to highlight ideas that any citizen thinks would be useful to the society on the national canvas.
    
The aim of NIC is to herald a mindset change and create a push at the grassroot level so that more and more people are involved in shaping a national level innovation strategy.
    
The council's mandate includes formulating a roadmap on innovation for the 2010 to 2020 period focusing on inclusive growth.
    
The NAC also comprises Planning Commission members Arun Maira and K Kasturirangan, former Nasscom chief Kiran Karnik and Tata Sons Executive Director R Gopalakrishnan. Among others, the industry representatives of Ficci and CII, Amit Mitra and Chandrajit Banerjee are also on the NIC board.