The National Innovation Council (NInC), set up by the Prime Minister to create Indian model of innovation, has indicated that it has secured in-principle approval for 75 per cent of the Rs.500-crore initial corpus of its upcoming India Inclusive Innovation Fund (IIIF).
IIIF, which will have contributions from the Ministry of Finance, public sector banks (PSBs) and multilateral agencies, is being mobilised by the NInC to finance enterprises focusing on the bottom of the pyramid, that is, firms delivering goods and services to the poorest people in the country. “The council has already received in-principle commitment/support of Rs.375 crore from a multilateral agency, PSBs and financial institutions, and additional commitments are anticipated,” said the NInC’s annual ‘Report to the People 2013’.However, the launch date is still not known though the council has been saying “it is in the final stages of launching the fund” over the past two years.
“The Fund will be registered with the Securities and Exchange of India (SEBI). A pipeline of potential investment prospects has been identified. A specialised core team is also expected to be in place before the first closure. It is anticipated that the fund would be operational by the beginning of 2014,” said the report.
At least 50 per cent of advances from the fund would be to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the first close. Further, to ensure spread of investment, the fund will not invest more than 15 per cent of the corpus in any single company. The fund intends to partner with public R&D programmes and laboratories to support the commercialisation and deployment of socially relevant technologies and solutions.
The fund, which will be governed by a SEBI-registered trust, will aspire to an eventual size of Rs.5,000 crore in the long-term.
