Govt's startup funds a bad idea, says Vinod Khosla

The startup funds announced by the government is "a bad idea" as it would minimise competition, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and Chairman Khosla Ventures Vinod Khosla said today.
"It is a bad idea. I am not a big fan of government establishing venture funds - or government investing. I think that will minimise competition," he told PTI here on the margins of the launch of Novopay, a consumer app and wallet developed by city-based Novopay Solutions.
The government should do foundational stuff like implementing Aadhaar and build infrastructure for providing telecom services and things like that, Khosla said.
"Government should do foundational stuff like aadhaar, which no company can do. In the telecom sector, the government can do spectra margin, which nobody else can do," he said, adding, "But individual telecom service - that part companies do very well."

The government should not establish venture funds when the private companies were able to raise funds on their own, Khosla said.
"Whenever some things can be done by private companies, the government should maximise competition by not doing it itself," he added.

On the Prime Minister's most popular slogan "Make In India", Khosla said "Making things in general is a good idea in the country."
He further said "he believes digital India is a fundamentally an important concept because it will reduce friction and increase the ability to start new startup companies."
Earlier, Khosla unveiled the Novopay consumer App and Wallet which promises to revolutionise mobile payments in India, be it at the neighbourhood shop, or to pay bills or pay friends online.

Novopay Chairman Srikanth Nadhamuni said "with this user-friendly App, consumers will also be able to pay conveniently for home deliveries, send money to family and friends, buy mobile and DTH recharges, pay mobile and other utility bills and purchase goods online."
Novopay CEO Sridhar Rao said the app has over 12,000 retail points across the country from where it already offers banking and money transfer services to walk-in customers since April 2014 in partnership with Bank of India, Axis Bank and RBL Bank.
With the launch of the product, the new payment mode would be acceptable at over 85,000 merchants, both offline and online, by this month end, Rao said.

The Novopay Wallet can also be conveniently loaded using credit/debit cards or your bank account and can also be loaded at any neighbouring Novopay enabled merchant, he added.