Technology: Govt to prioritize AI, divert Rs.10k startup fund to new tech
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Days after Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that Indian startup should innovate rather than recycling old ideas in new avatars, his ministry has decided to allocate a major part of the second Rs. 10,000 crore Fund of Funds Scheme (FFS) for startups to budding entrepreneurs in sectors such as new-age technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine building (MB), an official said.
In the Budget for FY26, the government announced a new FFS with a corpus of Rs.10,000 crore. In 2016 also, the government had launched a similar scheme.
“We are going to dedicate a lot of this Rs.10,000 crore fund of funds largely for the new age tech, AI, and machine building,” the media quoted the official as saying.
The 2016 scheme was launched to catalyze venture capital investments and is operationalised by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), which provides capital to Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi)-registered AIFs, which in turn invest in startups.
SIDBI is expected to manage the second scheme also, the official added.
Trying to build a strong ecosystem of the country for nurturing innovation and promoting startups, the government launched the Startup India initiative on January 16, 2016.
As per the government’s eligibility conditions, entities are recognised as ‘startups’ under the Startup India initiative by the department. So far, over 150,000 entities have been recognised as startups across more than 55 industries.
These units are eligible to avail tax and non-tax incentives under the Startup India action plan.
