The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) and Canbank Venture Capital Fund will launch Electronics Development Fund (EDF) on Monday in Mumbai
EDF is an initiative of Department of Information Technology to devise a "fund of funds" to participate in "daughter funds" which in turn will provide risk capital to companies developing new technologies in the area of electronics, nano-electronics and IT.
The target beneficiaries of the funds include start-ups, government and private-sector companies and institutions, micro, small and medium enterprises, larger established corporate and scientific and research or educational institutions (including private institutes).
Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will formally launch EDF by handing over of the letter of commitment to the first group of daughter funds.
EDF was first proposed in the draft of National Policy on Electronics 2011 (NPE 2011) and later launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the inauguration of Digital India Week on July 1, 2015.
The Ministry of Communications & Information Technology has said daughter funds will support acquisition of foreign companies, besides promoting start-ups in the country.
"The supported daughter funds will promote innovation, R&D and product development within the country in the specified fields of electronics, nano-electronics and IT. They will also support acquisition of foreign companies and technologies for products imported in India in large volume,' said DeitY in a statement.
It went on to say the core focus of the daughter funds would be to develop domestic design capabilities that would in turn create a resource pool of IP within the country in the specified fields.
The requests for seeking participation by venture funds, angel funds or seed funds must be made within the month of March 2017, according to the DeitY website.
