Rs. 200 crore VC fund for scheduled castes

The proposed fund, which would have an initial capital of Rs. 200 crore, would be set up in association with the Industrial Finance Corporation of India

In a move aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship amongst the scheduled caste community, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that the government would set up a venture capital fund specifically aimed at achieving this task.

The proposed fund, which would have an initial capital of Rs. 200 crore, would be set up in association with the Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI), Mr. Chidambaram said in his interim budget speech for 2014.

Further details of how the fund would be set up were not disclosed.

Innovation fund

In another unrelated development, the Finance Ministry also announced the addition of another Rs. 100 core to the India Inclusive Innovation Fund — which is aimed at helping small and medium entrepreneurs. It is currently being set up by the National Innovation Council and the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and has a corpus of Rs. 500 crore.