The Ministry of Science and Technology has decided to launch a Fund for Accelerating Start-ups (FAST) along with the Indian Venture Capital Association.
This could be the first public-private initiative to help entrepreneurs who are looking to take their business to the next stage, and would not be limited to the software industry only. Currently the government already runs the Technopreneur Promotion Programme (TePP), which funds new companies upto Rs 10 lakh for building prototypes and filing for patents.
Citing the example of Simputer, developed at the Indian Institue of Science, AS Rao of TePP said that venture capitalists shied away from the product even though it had tremendous social and economic value. The new fund aims to prevent choking inventions like that.
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