Cabinet note getting ready for venture fund: Sam Pitroda

A Cabinet note was getting ready on the launch of the India Inclusive Innovation Fund, a venture capital initiative of the National Innovation Council (NInC), aimed at solutions for those at the bottom of economic pyramid, council chairman Sam Pitroda said here today.
"The fund will be launched soon after the approval of the Union Cabinet. We already have the capital allocated and this is the first round," he told reporters after delivering the Foundation Day lecture at the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development.
Stating that the initiative would be like any other venture capital fund, where one needs to apply with a business plan, Pitroda said, "Though it was not the same kind of money the corporate made, but the social return that was being contemplated."

Asked about India being assigned the 66th rank at the Global Innovation Index 2013, Pitroda said "this indexing issue is very complicated. It depends on who is indexing. If I was to index, I am sure Tamil Nadu is the best.
"Ok. We should be higher. These things do not change overnight. People forget that India was the biggest economy in 1760. You cannot write off India," Pitroda, also the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations, said.
According to the NInC, the Inclusive Innovation Fund proposes to invest in a new generation of Indian entrepreneurs who will build - and are in the process of building - world class enterprises that focus on the problems of the poor, without compromising on economic success.