India earmarks Rs. 200 crore to set up 100 incubators

India will invest Rs. 200 crore to set up 100 more incubators across the country to support start-ups in innovations, a top official said on Thursday.

"As we want to double the number of incubators over the next four years, we will spend Rs 200 crore on setting up 100 more incubators under the National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI) programme," Science and Technology Secretary Ashutosh Sharma told reporters at an event here.

The Science and Technology (S&T) Department of the central government has set up 100 incubators across the country to support start-ups in innovations.

The department has also finalised locations to build five of the 50 super-computers this year for supporting research activities.

"Of the five super-computers, one each will be housed in the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) at Kharagpur in West Bengal and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, the International Institute of Information Technology at Pune in Maharashtra, and Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi," said Sharma.

Six of the 50 super-computers to be built in India to aid research would be ready this year. The government is finalising the sites to house these super-computers.

"We have finalised the sites to house these supercomputers. One supercomputer each will be housed at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and International Institute of Information Technology, Pune," Sharma said.

The super-computers are being set up across the country under the National Super-computing Mission at a cost of Rs 4,500 crore over the next seven years.

"We have taken measures to increase investment in science and technology and research and development (R&D) to two per cent of the Gross Domestic Product per annum from one per cent of the GDP," reiterated Sharma on the margins of a two-day Global R&D Summit 2017, organised by the S&T Department and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci). 

Asserting that the government was committed to promote R&D in the country, Sharma said the private sector should contribute more funds to R&D activities.

"The central government contributes two-third of the amount spent on R&D as against one-third by the private sector. It is vice-versa in other countries. We want the private sector to invest more funds in R&D activities," added Sharma.