New Delhi: Advancement in technology and
innovations has mostly helped the rich without adequately
solving problems of the poor. This state of affair must
change, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday.
Taking the first major step in this direction, government
announced infusion of Rs 100 crore seed money for a Rs 5,000
crore innovation fund for supporting new ideas which will be
of useful for the masses.
"We have made innovations in areas such as space
technology, atomic energy and automobiles. But innovation in
our country has focused mostly on the needs of rich and not
adequately on solving problems of the poor. We wish to change
this state of affair," Singh said while releasing a report of
the National Innovation Council.
Innovation, he said, can be "a game-changer to move
from incremental change to radical change. And therefore it is
our resolve to build an enabling environment for innovation to
flourish."
To encourage innovation, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee
announced that government would provide an initial capital of
Rs 100 crore to the India Inclusive Innovation Fund (IIIF).
The Council has chalked out a plan to raise Rs 5,000 crore for
promoting innovation.
The country, Singh said, needed models of innovation to
address problems in areas such as poverty alleviation, health,
rural communications, agriculture, animal husbandry, green
energy and so on.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, November 15, 2011, 13:54