Innovation is a never ending process, the ideas keep on juggling inside the human brain, one just need to pop one out and it gives birth to an innovative idea. Now, the government of Karnataka has stepped forward to support innovative ideas by funding them.
Rs. 20 crore funds have been alloted by the government to provide grants of $ 30,000 (Rs. 18 Lakh) each to innovative ideas.
Ezhil Subbain, is the first person who received this grant from the government. Subbain is a biotech researcher and an entrepreneur who has been researching to make plastic biodegradable.
The government joined hands with three international universities from California and TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Silicon Valley Chapter for this initiative, and it is also a part of the San Francisco- Bangalore Sister City Initiative.
"The California organisations would vet the ideas and recommend to the Karnataka government those they think should be given a grant," says Kumar Malavalli, one of the richest Indians in the US and who is also closely associated with the initiative. Malavalli , who recently visited the city as he was a part of a large delegation from San Francisco. He is born and brought up in Mysore and Bangalore.
He stated further "the funding will at the idea stage, and we expect the entrepreneurs to use the funds to validate the idea and come up with business plan. The idea has to be disruptive, scalable and sustainable, and must seek to solve real life problems."
The three California universities- Berkeley, Santa Cruz and San Francisco will vet biotech proposals and TiE silicon valley will vet all other ideas. TiE will also offer space free of cost in California for those startups to operate out of for some time.
"TiE SV has just created a venture fund of $ 20 million called 'LaunchPad'. Those who receive the Karnataka grant can later apply to this fund. But this fund will also serve