The Ministry of Commerce and Industry intends to invest a major chunk of its second Rs 10,000 crore Fund of Funds Scheme (FFS) to fund upcoming entrepreneurs in frontier areas such as artificial intelligence, new-age technology, and machine building.

In this year’s Budget, the government unveiled the new FFS, which carries a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore. A similar initiative was introduced back in 2016. "We are going to dedicate a lot of this Rs 10,000 crore fund of funds largely for the new age tech, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine building," the official said.

The previous 2016 plan was intended to ignite venture capital investment and is dealt with by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). SIDBI enables funding by lending money to Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi)-registered Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), which invest in startups. The official added that SIDBI would most likely handle the new plan also.

Launched on January 16, 2016, the Startup India initiative seeks to create a vibrant ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship across India. Under the Startup India program, the government identifies eligible entities as startups, and thus far, more than 1, 50,000 such units have been identified across more than 55 industries. Eligible recognized startups can avail benefits in the form of tax and non-tax benefits given in the Startup India action plan.