Electronics Development Fund (EDF) policy

As part of the “Digital India” agenda of the Government, it is envisaged to develop the Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) sector to achieve “Net Zero Imports” by 2020. Setting up of Electronic Development Fund (EDF) is one of the important strategies which would enable creating a vibrant ecosystem of innovation, research and development (R&D) and with active industry involvement. It is with this objective that an Electronic Development Fund (EDF) is set up as a “Fund of Funds” to participate in professionally managed “Daughter Funds” which in turn will provide risk capital to companies developing new technologies in the area of electronics, nano-electronics and Information Technology (IT). The EDF will also help attract venture funds, angel funds and seed funds towards R&D and innovation in the specified areas. It will help create a battery of Daughter funds and Fund Managers who will be seeking good start-ups (potential winners) and selecting them based on professional considerations.

Target Beneficiaries:

Any Daughter Fund which is registered in India and abides with relevant rules and regulations applicable to such Funds, including SEBI regulations on Venture Funds and is set up to achieve the objectives mentioned above will be eligible for support from the EDF.

Fund Manager:

CANBANK Venture Capital Funds Ltd. (CVCFL) http://www.canbankventure.com/ is the Fund Manager for EDF. The role of the Fund Manager of EDF is to consider requests from applicant Venture Funds, Angel Funds and Seed Funds and make recommendations to the Department of Electronics and IT, Government of India. The CVCFL will also be participating in the individual beneficiary Daughter Funds based on the approval of the Department of Electronics and IT.

Time Lines:

The requests for seeking participation by EDF in any Venture Fund, Angel Fund or Seed Fund must be made on or before 31.03.2017

Contact Details:
CVCFL

Shri S. Thiruvadi, MD, CVCFL, md@canbankventure.com. Fax: +91-80- 25583909

­Shri P. Sitaram, Executive Vice President, CVCFL, sitaramp@canbankventure.com
DeitY
Shri Prashant Kumar, Scientist-‘D’ prashant@deity.gov.in

Semiconductor Industry-benchmarking India

ISA -DIT report makes comparison of Indian Semiconductor industry (VLSI design, embedded software development and hardware/board design) with that of US,UK, Germany, Sweden,China, Taiwan,Israel. First the good news, ranking is high on talent pool ( quantitative) with large number of engineers. Bad news is that we stand at the bottom in terms of quality of  scientific research institutes. Next comes the goals, no 1 goal is maintain leadership position in semiconductor design by incubating 50 fabless semi conductor companies. Since our own research institutes are not world class, then these 50 incubating firms need to source IP from globally best , accessible and available.

Can we expect that package of support from government for the start-ups would include this IP sourcing?