The National Innovation Council (NInC) and the Ministry of MSME, on Monday, announced the creation of India Inclusive Innovation Fund (IIIF), a fund that seeks to help small entrepreneurs and innovators turn their ideas into reality.
According to an official statement, the fund will be registered under SEBI’s Alternative Investment Fund Category I guidelines. It will have an initial corpus of Rs. 500 crore, with the Ministry of MSME committing to Rs. 100 crore. The balance will come from banks, insurance companies, and overseas financial and development institutions. The fund’s eventual aim is to expand the corpus to Rs. 5,000 crore over the next 24 months.
Sam Pitroda, Chairman of NInC and Advisor to the Prime Minister on Public Information, Infrastructure and Innovation, said, “IIIF seeks to leverage the model of venture capital to transform the lives of the less privileged.”
MSME Secretary Shri Madhav Lal said that the underlying philosophy of the programme was to bring various stakeholders together not only for financing enterprises but also to provide support through technical inputs .
The fund would invest in innovative ventures that were scalable, sustainable and, therefore, profitable. However, it would also address the social needs of less privileged citizens in areas such as healthcare, food, nutrition, agriculture and education.
