Sitharaman announces Rs 10k cr fund of funds scheme for startups

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday announced another round of Fund of Funds for Startups scheme with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore to promote growth of budding entrepreneurs. The announcement assumes significance as the government is focusing on promoting innovation through startups.

Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has recognised over 1.5 lakh startups so far. An action plan for Startup India was unveiled on January 16, 2016. In the same year, Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) scheme was launched with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore, to meet the funding needs of startups.
DPIIT is the monitoring agency and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the operating agency for FFS.

The total corpus of Rs 10,000 crore was envisaged to be provided over the 14th and 15th Finance Commission cycles based on progress of the scheme and availability of funds. It has not only made capital available for startups at early stage, seed stage and growth stage but also played a catalytic role in terms of facilitating raising domestic capital, reducing dependence on foreign capital and encouraging home- grown and new venture capital funds. She also said that the government will provide Rs 20,000 crore for promoting innovation in partnership with the private sector.

She said the government will launch export promotion mission with specified target for easy credit access. Sitharaman further said the Centre will set up a national framework for promoting global capability centres in emerging Tier-II cities.
In order to strengthen the economy’s integration with global supply chains, she also said the government will provide support for domestic manufacturing capacity. The finance minister also announced plans to set up Bharat Trade Net, a digital public infrastructure, for international trade.

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