In the year 2011 a separate fund was announced to provide necessary resources to public and private sector companies, including SMEs, as well as academic and scientific institutions to support research and development of Defence systems that enhance cutting-edge technology capability in the country. However, beyond the announcement, no action was taken. Therefore, I propose to set aside an initial sum of Rs.100 crore to set up a Technology Development Fund to support this objective.
Rural Entrepreneurship
To Set up a "Start Up Village Entrepreneurship Programme" for encouraging rural youth to take up local entrepreneurship programs. An initial sum of Rs. 100 crore is provisioned for this
Innovation
Promotion of entrepreneurship and start-up Companies remains a challenge. While there have been some efforts to encourage, one principal limitation has been availability of start-up capital by way of equity to be brought in by the promoters. In order to create a conducive eco-system for the venture capital in the MSME sector it is proposed to establish a Rs.10,000 crore fund to act as a catalyst to attract private Capital by way of providing equity, quasi equity, soft loans and other risk capital for start-up companies.
To establish technology centre network to promote innovation, entrepreneurship and agro-industry, I propose to set up a fund with a corpus of Rs.200 crore.
Entrepreneur friendly legal bankruptcy framework will also be developed for SMEs to enable easy exit. A nationwide "District level Incubation and Accelerator Programme" would be taken up for incubation of new ideas and providing necessary support for accelerating entrepreneurship
Technology Research
The Department of Science & Technology has some of country's leading research centres in the areas such as nanotechnology, materials science and bio-medical device technology. The government will strengthen at least five such institutions as Technical Research Centres to make them more effective in the innovation space through Public Private Partnerships.