Special fund to help innovators turn ideas to reality: President Pranab Mukherjee

NEW DELHI: Stressing that innovation was the key driver of growth and development, President Pranab Mukherjee today said a special fund would be set up to help innovators turn their ideas into reality.

Mukherjee, who received the second 'Report to the People' of the National Innovation Council (NInC), said the India Inclusive Innovation Fund was proposed to be operationalised with an initial corpus of Rs 500 crore.

" Government of India has already made a provision for allocating Rs 100 crore as seed money for the Fund," he said.

The NInC report, presented by Sam Pitroda, Chairman of the National Innovation Council, highlights the activities and initiatives the Council has undertaken to strengthen the innovation eco-system in the country.

Pitroda also demonstrated government's ambitious plan to connectivity to 2.5 lakh village panchyats by establishing live video communication link from Rashtrapati Bhavan to Moradabad Innovation Cluster and Kanpura Gram Panchayat in Ajmer District of Rajasthan.

Mukherjee said India has an estimated 5,000 small and medium scale regional industry clusters which were unable to utilise their full potential.

He noted that the NInC has been working towards seeding innovations in these industry clusters, while focussing on SMEs, by facilitating the creation of Industry Innovation Clusters to drive job creation and productivity.

The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research are also supporting the NInC in this effort.

"We look forward to the results of these interventions in enhancing the innovation quotient of the clusters and in boosting job creation," Mukherjee said.