NITI Aayog to discuss ways to promote innovation

The deliberations will be chaired by Arvind Panagariya while Jayant Sinha will also join the forum

Aiming to boost innovation, entrepreneurship and start-ups, NITI Aayog will hold day-long deliberations tomorrow on steps recommended by an expert panel to seek inputs on the same.

NITI Aayog has invited eminent innovators, entrepreneurs, business leaders, scholars, academia and research community to provide their view on the issue.

These deliberations will be chaired by the NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya while MoS Finance Jayant Sinha will also join the forum later in the day, a senior official said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in Budget 2015-16, had announced the government's intention to establish the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) in NITI and stated that initially a sum of Rs 150 crore would be earmarked for this purpose.

The overarching purpose of this mission is to promote a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation in India. In the years to come, entrepreneurship and innovation are expected to be important sources of growth and job creation.

New technology also has the potential to find solutions to pressing economic and social problems. The government sees the AIM as critical to expediting the entrepreneurial process in India.

Government has already established SETU (Self Employed and Talent Utilisation), which will be a Techno-Financial, Incubation and Facilitation Programme to support all aspects of start-up businesses and other self-employment activities, particularly in technology driven areas.

Following the Budget announcements by Finance Minister, NITI Aayog had constituted an Expert Committee under the Chairmanship of Professor Tarun Khanna, Director, South Asia Institute, Harvard University, USA.

The panel has submitted its report. It has made wide ranging recommendations for short-term (where action can be taken relatively quickly to deliver almost immediate payoffs), medium-term (that can be addressed within a 5-7 year time frame) and long-term, which are likely to have long gestation periods, but will lead to a profound transformation in the entrepreneurial fabric of the country.

The Committee observed that formulation of the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) could be a defining moment in India's economic history, and the idea must be unfettered and allowed to flourish.

The Committee also emphasized the need to establish clear systems to monitor implementation, execution and impact. It has also been asked to incentivise corporates for their investments in research and development.

A cash prize of up to Rs 30 crore for innovative entrepreneurs and setting aside 1 per cent of corporate profits to encourage out-of-the-box thinking are some of the proposals suggested by this panel.